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GIFT   OF 


STATE  PUBLICATION 

OF 
SCHOOL   BOOKS 


STATE    PUBLICATION 
OF   SCHOOL   BOOKS 


BY 


JOHN  FRANKLIN  BROWN 

Ph.D.  (Cornell) 

Sometime  Professor  in  Education  and  Inspector  of  High 
Schools  for  the  State  University  of  Iowa;  Professor  of 
Education  and  Principal  of  the  Normal  School  in  the 
University  of  Wyoming;  Exchange  Teacher  of  English 
in  a  Prussian  Oberrealschuie,  Franckesche  Stiftungen, 
Halle  a.  Saale;  Instructor  of  Secondary  Education  in 
Teachers  College,  Columbia  University,  summer  session; 
Lecturer  in  Education  in  Vassar  College  and  in  Wellesley 
College.  Author  of  The  American  High  School  and  The 
Training  of  Teachers  for  Secondary  Schools  in  Germany  and 
the  United  States.  Editor  of  Educational  Books,  The 
Macmillan  Company. 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

Publishers 
64-66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1915, 
By  JOHN  FRANKLIN  BROWN 


CONTENTS 

I.  INTRODUCTION. — The  State  is  justified  in  taking  over 
and  managing  any  public  service  if  thereby 

A.  The  expense  is  substantially  reduced 

B.  The  service  is  materially  improved 

C.  There  are  no  serious  objectionable  general  con- 

sequences 

II.  ARGUMENT. 

A.  Expense 

1.  Factors  that  determine  the  price  of  a  book 

a.  Manufacturing  cost 
fe.  Overhead  charges 

c.  Royalty 

d.  Publisher's  profit 

2.  Cost  of  books  published  by  the  State 

a.  Ontario 

b.  California 

c.  Georgia 

d.  Kansas 

B.  Service 

1.  Mechanical  features  of  books 

2.  Pedagogical  features  of  books 

3.  Delivery  of  books  to  pupils 

4.  Changing  to  a  better  book 

5.  Limitation  to  a  single  text 

C.  General  Consequences 

1.  State  ownership 

2.  Efficiency 

3.  School  interests  and  political  emergencies 

4.  Professional  spirit  of  teachers 

5.  Authorship    and    competitive    publishing 

enterprise 

6.  Cost  versus  quality  in  education. 

III.  CONCLUSION. 

A.  Expense 

B.  Service 

C.  Consequences 

5512: 


Part  of  the  material  of  this  study  was  first 
given  as  an  address  before  an  educational  club 
of  Columbia  University,  and  later  as  a  lecture 
at  the  summer  session  of  Teachers  College.  An 
abstract  of  it  appeared  in  "School  and  Society" 
for  October  2,  1915.  It  contains  significant  in- 
formation concerning  the  experience  of  three 
states  in  which  the  publication  of  school  books 
by  the  state  has  been  either  tried  or  considered 
and  rejected.  So  many  requests  for  the  data 
contained  in  it  have  been  received  by  the  author 
that  it  has  been  printed  in  revised  and  enlarged 
form  with  the  hope  that  it  may  be  of  service  in 
the  consideration  of  an  important  educational 
problem. 


STATE  PUBLICATION 

OF 

SCHOOL  BOOKS 

The  state  is  justified  in  taking  over  and  managing  any 
public  service — for  example,  the  postal  service,  railroads, 
telegraph,  telephone,  or  the  making  of  school  books — if 
thereby 

A.  The  expense  is  substantially  reduced; 

B.  The  service  is  materially  improved; 

C.  There  are  no  objectionable  general  consequences. 

EXPENSE 

The  factors  that  determine  the  selling  price  of  a  book 
made  by  a  publisher — that  is,  under  the  competitive  plan 
— are  as  follows: 

1.  Manufacturing  cost — editing,  type-setting,  author's 
corrections,  plates,  illustrations,  engraving,  paper,  print- 
ing, and  binding. 

2.  Overhead  charges — interest  on  investment,  deprecia- 
tion of  plates,  depreciation  of  plant,  salaries  of  office  force 
and  field  agents,  storage,  insurance,  taxes,  transportation, 
postage,  advertising,  and  retail  dealer's  profit. 

3.  Royalty  paid  to  author. 

4.  Publisher's  profits. 

If  the  state  publishes  its  own  school  books  there  may  be 
omitted  from  the  above-named  cost  factors  the  items  of 

1 


taxes,  field  agents,  advertising,' and  publisher's  profits.  All 
the  others  remain. 

It  is  an  easy  matter  to  theorize  concerning  the  relative 
cost  of  school  books  when  published  by  the  state  and  un- 
der the  competitive  plan,  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  secure 
figures  that  are  accurate,  comprehensive,  and  demonstra- 
bly  conclusive  concerning  results  in  places  where  the  plan 
of  state  publication  has  been  tried.  It  is  always  difficult 
to  discover  and  include  all  the  expense  justly  chargeable 
to  the  publication  of  books. 

The  four  places  in  which  the  plan  has  been  either 
adopted  wholly  or  in  part,  or  considered  and  rejected, 
are  the  Province  of  Ontario  (Canada),  California,  Geor- 
gia, and  Kansas. 

ONTARIO.  The  prices  of  some  school  books  published 
by  the  government  in  Ontario  are  much  lower  than  those 
of  books  intended  for  similar  purposes  in  the  states.  The 
difference  is  due  to  several  causes — to  different  economic 
conditions,  to  the  fact  that  the  government  bears  a  con- 
siderable share  of  the  expense  of  making  them,  to  the  fact 
that  some  of  them  are  manufactured  by  department  stores 
for  advertising  purposes  and  are  sold  at  less  than  cost,  to 
the  government  monopoly  in  their  use,  and  to  the  rela- 
tively inferior  character  of  the  books.  The  Ontario  plan 
of  publication  has  little  more  than  academic  interest  for 
people  in  the  United  States,  because  the  conditions  pre- 
vailing in  Canada  are  so  different  from  those  existing  here. 
In  every  case  in  which  this  plan  has  been  considered  it  has 
been  rejected  as  unsuited  to  American  conditions. 

CALIFORNIA.  In  1884  an  amendment  to  the  constitu- 
tion, providing  for  the  publication  of  textbooks  by  the 
state,  was  ratified  by  the  people  of  California,  and  the 
following  year  legislation  was  enacted,  putting  the  plan 
into  operation.  The  financial  side  of  the  story  may  be 


briefly  told  in  the  following  summary  of  appropriations 
from  1885  to  1913: 

ORIGINAL  APPROPRIATIONS 

1885,  Feb.  26,  for  equipment  and  manufacturing $150,000.00 

"     for  compilation  of  textbooks 20,000.00 

SUPPLEMENTARY  APPROPRIATIONS 

1887,  Mar.  15,  for  equipment  and  manufacturing 165,000.00 

"     for  compilation  of  textbooks 15,000.00 

"    for    deficiency    in     former    appropriations 

(mfg.)    7,500.00 

"     for  construction  of  warehouse  for  books 10,000.00 

1889,            14,  for  enlarging  state  printing  office   11,000.00 

21,  for  pay  of  employees,  stock,  etc.,  in  text- 
book department   50,000.00 

1891,  Apr.    6,  for  pay  of  employees,  stock,  etc.,  in  text- 
book department   40,000.00 

"    for  compilation  of  textbooks 5,000.00 

1895,  Mar.  28,  for  pay  of  employees,   stock,  etc.,  in  text- 
book department   40,000.00 

1903,    "       18,  for  expense  of  textbook  committee   20,000.00 

"        "      25,  for  new  machinery 40,000.00 

1905,    "      11,  for  salary  of  sec'y  of  textbook  committee. .  4,125.00 

"        "      18,  for  new  machinery  35,000.00 

1909,  Feb.    5,  for  deficit  in  former  appropriation 479.57 

"        "      22,  for  new  machinery  50,000,00 

1911,  May    1,  for  new  machinery 14,000.00 


$677,104.57 

All  of  these  appropriations  were  made  from  the  general 
fund,  that  is,  from  the  public  treasury  of  the  state.  The 
proceeds  derived  from  the  sale  of  textbooks  were  consti- 
tuted a  separate  fund,  known  as  the  State  School  Book 
Fund.  This  was  a  revolving  fund,  used  to  defray  the  cost 
of  manufacturing  textbooks,  and  was  presumed  to  be  suffi- 
cient for  that  purpose.  If  the  claims  of  the  founders  of 
the  plan  had  been  fulfilled,  only  the  original  appropria- 
tions of  $170,000  would  have  been  needed  to  keep  the 
project  going  indefinitely.  The  supplementary  appropria- 
tions were  necessary  because  the  State  School  Book  Fund 

3 


proved  to  be  inadequate,  although,  as  it  will  appear  later, 
the  prices  at  which  the  state-manufactured  books  were  sold 
to  dealers  were  generally  about  the  same  as  the  publisher's 
prices  to  dealers  for  the  same  or  similar  books.  Of  course 
these  supplementary  appropriations  would  not  have  been 
necessary  had  the  State  Board  fixed  the  prices  sufficiently 
high  to  pay  all  the  costs  of  publication.  They  became  nec- 
essary only  because  in  the  attempt  to  show  a  saving  to  the 
state,  the  State  Board,  upon  the  advice  of  the  State 
Printer,  had  priced  the  books  lower  than  they  had  been 
able  to  produce  them. 

In  addition  to  the  foregoing,  the  following  increased 
cost  of  the  State  Printing  Office  was  occasioned  by  its 
extension  to  include  the  printing  of  textbooks.  It  has 
been  met  by  appropriations  out  of  the  General  Fund,  and 
is  chargeable  to  state  publication. 

a.  Increased  salary  of  Superintendent  of  State  Printing*. .  $24,800.00 

b.  Salary  of  Deputy  State  Printer 38,400.00 

c.  Insurance   10,250.00 

d.  Watchman   4,800.00 

e.  Salaries  in  office  of  State  Superintendent  of  Public  In- 

struction         52,000.00 

f.  Investigation  of  corruption 5,000.00 


Total  indirect  appropriations $135,250.00 

Total  direct  appropriations 677,104.57 


Total    $812,354.57 

In  effect,  the  State  of  California  subsidized  the  state 
printing  plant  to  the  amount  of  $812,354,  in  order  that 

*  a.  By  act  of  March  10,  1885,  the  salary  was  increased  from  $2,400 
to  $3,000.     By  act  of  April  26,  1909,  it  was  raised  to  $5,000. 

b.  Deputy  State  Printer  at  $2,400  per  annum  since  1897-1898. 

c.  Act  of  March  17,  1889,  Act  of  March  21,  1901,  etc. 

d.  Act  of  April  26,  1909,  watchman  at  $1,200  per  annum. 

e.  Act  of  March   15.   1887,   clerical  aid   at   $2,000   per   annum   ex- 

pressly on  account  of  Act  relating  to  State  publication. 

f.  Resolution   of  March  25,   1911.   Senate  Daily  Journal,  January 

29,  1913,  p.  8. 

4 


it  might  secure  its  school  books  at  a  lower  rate.  What 
was  the  result?  How  did  the  prices  at  which  textbooks 
were  sold  by  the  state  to  pupils  compare  with  the  prices 
at  which  they  could  have  been  secured  from  publishers 
without  cost  to  the  state?  Were  the  expected  lower  prices 
realized  ? 

The  first  set  of  texts,*  for  the  compilation  of  which  the 
State  of  California  had  appropriated  $40,000  from  the 
general  fund,  were  sold  at  more  than  double  the  prices  at 
which  the  State  Printer  had  originally  estimated  he  could 
produce  them.  The  following  table  shows  this  estimate 
and  also  the  relative  cost  of  books  under  California  prices 
and  publishers'  prices  in  1890.** 


Publishers* 

Actual 

price  of 

Original      prices 

similar 

estimate     charged 

book  to 

of  State  by  State 

wholesale 

BOOKS 

Printer      in  1890 

dealers 

First  Reader. . .  .$0.09%  $0.15 
Second  Reader..  .18  .33 

Third  Reader...  .34%  .54 

Speller 08%  .25 

Arithmetic 28%  Ele.  .20 

Adv.  .42 
Grammar  20%  Ele.  .25 

Adv.  .42 

History 29%  .70 

Ele.  Geography..  .35  .50 

$1.73%        $3.76 


McGuffey's  1st  Reader.  .$0.13% 

Harper's  2d  Reader 28% 

McGuffey's  5th  Reader. . .     .57% 

Watson's  Speller 16 

Robinson's  1st  Book 24 

Robinson's  Complete,  Pt.  II    .40 
Swinton's  Lang.  Lessons..     .30% 

Swinton's  Grammar 45% 

Barnes'  Brief 80 

Harper's  Introductory 38% 

$3.74% 


*  In  content  these  texts  were  so  defective  that  they  were  first 
revised  and  then  thrown  out  altogether. 

**  A  History  of  the  State  Printer's  Monopoly  of  School  Books 
in  the  State  of  California,  p.  38. 


In  1890,  in  answer  to  numerous  inquiries,  State  Super- 
intendent, Ira  G.  Hoitt,  wrote  the  following  open  letter 
concerning  the  cost  and  other  features  of  the  project: 

STATE  OF  CALIFORNIA, 
DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION, 

Sacramento,  Dec.  26, 1890. 

Dear  Sir: 

In  reply  to  your  late  inquiry  concerning  the  publication 
of  school  textbooks  by  the  State  of  California,  I  have  had  so 
many  similar  inquiries  from  your  own  and  other  states  that  I 
have  concluded  to  make  a  general  statement  in  regard  to  the 
practical  results  of  our  experiment  in  state  publication  of 
textbooks. 

For  over  four  years  this  plan  has  had  a  fair  and  impartial 
trial  in  our  state.  I  came  into  office  a  believer  in  the  project, 
and  every  aid  which  I  could  give  to  its  successful  issue  has 
been  freely  rendered  throughout  my  administration. 

But  now,  in  the  light  of  my  experience,  I  must  acknowledge 
that  results  have  not  met  my  expectations. 

In  the  first  place,  the  expense  has  been  great— over  four 
hundred  thousand  dollars  having  been  appropriated  thus  far 
for  the  compilation  of  the  series  and  the  manufacture  of  the 
first  50,000  copies  of  each  book.  Ten  books  have  so  far  been 
issued,  and  three  more  are  yet  to  come  to  complete  a  full 
series  as  required  by  our  law. 

Whatever  may  be  the  advantages  claimed  for  state  publi- 
cation by  believers  in  a  paternal  plan  of  government,  the 
result  of  the  experiment  in  our  state  shows  that  it  costs  the 
state  more  to  manufacture  the  books  than  it  would  cost  a 
private  publishing  house — for  obvious  reasons.  Besides  this, 
there  is,  in  a  state  series,  a  lack  of  spontaneity  and  compe- 
tition in  authorship. 

When  the  State  Board  employs  an  author  or  compiler,  it 
must  accept  and  pay  for  his  work  whether  it  is  suitable  or 
not.  And  the  supervision  and  compilation  of  series  of  school- 
books  by  a  State  Board,  whose  memberships  are  subject  to 
frequent  changes  and  who  are  already  burdened  with  other 
duties,  is  attended  with  difficulties. 

While  our  State  Board  has  been  zealous  and  has  done  the 
best  it  could  in  making  a  state  series,  I  regret  that  its  efforts 
have  not  met  the  requirements  of  the  schools  or  the  expecta- 
tions of  our  leading  educators,  as  shown  by  the  following  reso- 


lution  adopted  at  the  Biennial  Convention  of  California  School 
Superintendents,  held  December  2  and  3,  1890. 

"Resolved,  that  while  certain  of  the  state  textbooks, 
notably  the  'Primary  Language  Lessons'  and  the  'Ele- 
mentary Geography,'  have  met  the  approval  of  our  public- 
school  teachers  of  the  state,  we  desire  to  record  our  severe 
criticism  and  disapproval  of  others  of  the  state  series 
and  express  our  judgment  that  their  thorough  revision 
by  competent  authors,  so  as  to  adapt  them  to  the  wants 
of  the  schools,  is  imperative  and  should  be  entered  upon 
at  once." 

In  the  light  of  our  experience,  after  four  years  of  trial,  I 
am  therefore  compelled,  with  personal  reluctance,  to  acknowl- 
edge to  the  comparative  want  of  success  in  our  California  ex- 
periment in  making  and  publishing  schoolbooks.  Taking  into 
consideration  the  large  appropriations  made  and  the  further 
and  constant  outlays  for  revisions,  new  plates,  etc.,  the  same 
number  of  books  can  be  purchased  in  the  open  market  at 
wholesale  prices  for  less  than  it  costs  the  state  to  manufacture 
them. 

I  am  therefore  constrained  to  admit  that  I  would  not  advise 
any  other  state  to  enter  upon  the  publication  of  school  books. 

Very  truly  yours, 

IRA  G.  HOITT, 
Supt.  of  Public  Instruction. 


So  high  an  authority  in  economics  as  Professor  J.  W. 
Jenks  says  in  1891  in  an  article  on  Schoolbook  Legislation: 

The  State  of  California  at  present  is  not  saving  money 
by  manufacturing  books,  if  we  compare  prices  with  those  it 
might  contract  for,  size  and  quality  of  books  being  considered. 
It  is  probably  true,  moreover,  that  selections  might  be  made 
by  any  board  from  the  books  of  private  firms  that  would 
on  the  whole  be  better  adapted  to  the  work  of  the  schools. 

A  comparison  of  these  prices  will  show  that  book  pub- 
lishers will  supply  similar  books  at  as  good,  and  in  some 
cases  at  better,  rates  even  to  school  districts  buying  sepa- 
rately, and  in  some  instances  to  individual  purchasers.  The 
testimony  of  many  teachers  is  to  the  same  effect,  i.e.,  that 
nothing  is  saved  to  the  pupils  in  money  by  the  state  series. 
— Good  Citizenship,  pp.  228,  232. 


PRICES  PREVAILING  IN  1905-06  ARE  REPORTED  AS 

FOLLOWS:*  tftow 


Publishers' 
actual 
retail 
prices 


Cyr's   Primer 

Cyr's  1st  Reader 28 

Cyr's  2d  Reader 36 

Cyr's  3d  Reader 50 

Cyr's  4th  Reader 60 

McClymonds  &  Jones' 

Elemen.  Arithmetic.     .35 
Hornbrook's   Grammar 

School  Arithmetic..  .65 
Steps  in  English— Bk.  I  .40 
Steps  in  English-Bk.  II  .60 
Thomas'  Elemen.  Hist.  .60 
McMaster's  Sch.  Hist.  1.00 
Tarr  &  McMurry's  In- 
troductory Geog 60 

Natural  Adv.  Geog...  1.25 

$7.43 


Publishers' 
actual 

net 
prices 

$0.19 
.22 
.29 
.40 

.48 


.52 
.32 

.48 
.48 
.80 

.48 
1.00 

$5.94 


California      California 
cost  prices  to 

prices       pupils    from 
Sacramento         retail 
dealers 
$0.25 


.35 
.50 
.60 

.35 

.60 
.35 
.55 
.55 

.95 

.64 
1.20 

$7.18 


.24 

.28 
.42 
.49 


.50 
.28 
.46 
.45 
.81 

.55 

.98 

$5.94 


In  the  Sierra  Educational  News  for  October  and  No- 
vember, 1911,  appeared  an  editorial,  from  which  the  fol- 
lowing extract  is  taken.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  writer 
believes  in  free  textbooks,  and  that  his  argument  is  di- 
rected against  state  publication  and  state  uniformity  of 
schoolbooks. 

The  Cost  of  Textbooks — Since  educational  experience  and 
educational  theory  both  strongly  sanction  local  adoptions  and 
optional  free  texts,  we  might  fairly  rest  the  case  at  this  point. 
But  we  desire  to  meet  the  advocates  of  state  publication  on 
the  only  point  left — cost  of  books.  Some  people  might  be 
disposed  to  put  up  with  a  confessedly  poor  system,  if  it  could 
be  shown  that  such  a  system  is  cheaper  than  the  one  pro- 
posed. A  system  of  local  adoptions  necessarily  involves  the 
purchase  of  books  in  the  open  market.  It  does  away  neces- 

*  Journal  of  Education,  Feb.  18,  1909. 

8 


sarily  with  state  publication.  Can  books  be  purchased  under 
local  adoplMl^at  prices  comparable  with  those  charged  under 
state  publication? 

A  study  of  conditions  and  prices  in  states  having  local 
adoptions  will  prove  instructive.  Where  boards  representing 
cities  or  counties  deal  directly  with  publishers,  the  books  are 
laid  down  to  these  authorities,  or  to  dealers  in  non-free-text 
territory,  at  20  per  cent,  off  the  list  price.*  In  several  states 
the  books  are  laid  down  at  the  capital  at  25  per  cent,  off  the 
list  price.  The  list  price  of  a  book  is  the  price  fixed  by  the 
publisher  at  which  the  book  should  be  sold  in  ordinary  trade 
over  the  dealer's  counter.  The  list  price  includes  the  profits 
of  both  the  jobber  and  the  retailer.  Co-operative  buying 
from  publishers  direct  cuts  out  these  profits  and  makes  a 
material  reduction  in  the  cost  of  the  book  to  the  pupil.  With 
city  and  county  adoptions  in  California,  the  books  could  easily 
be  delivered  to  boards  of  education,  or  to  dealers  in  non-free- 
text  territory,  at  20  per  cent,  off  the  list  price. 

We  are  now  ready  for  a  specific  comparison  of  prices  under 
our  present  system  of  state  publication  with  those  that  would 
prevail  under  local  adoptions.  California  publishes  six  texts 
in  reading  and  sells  them  to  the  children  as  follows:  Primer, 
28  cents;  first  reader,  25  cents;  second  reader,  30  cents; 
third  reader,  45  cents;  fourth  reader,  60  cents;  fifth  reader, 
60  cents.  The  total  cost  of  the  six  books  is  $2.48.  The  list 
prices  of  the  same  books,  as  published  regularly,  follow: 
Aldine  Primer  (Newson  and  Co.),  32  cents;  Progressive 
First  Reader  (Silver,  Burdett  &  Co.),  32  cents;  Brooks' 
Third  Reader  (American  Book  Co.),  40  cents;  Stepping 
Stones  Fourth  Reader  (Silver,  Burdett  &  Co.),  60  cents;  Step- 
ping Stones  Fifth  Reader  (Silver,  Burdett  &  Co.),  60  cents. 
The  total  list  price  of  the  six  is  $2.59.  Deducting  20  per 
cent.,  we  have  $2.07,  the  price  at  which  the  books  would  be 
delivered  to  city  and  county  boards,  or  to  dealers  in  non- 
free-text  territory.  Adding  10  per  cent,  of  the  list  price  for 
the  cost  of  handling  by  superintendents  or  dealers,  we  have 
$2.33  as  the  price  to  be  paid  by  the  children.  This  is  15  cents 
less  than  we  are  paying  now  for  these  books  on  inferior  paper 
and  with  poor  bindings. 

But  someone  objects  that  the  total  cost  of  $2.48  for  the 
state  readers  would  be  materially  lessened  if  all  the  graft 
could  be  squeezed  out  of  the  State  Printing  Office,  and  busi- 
nesslike methods  introduced.  This  is  certainly  true.  For- 
tunately we  have  the  figures  of  the  secretary  of  the  State 
Board  of  Control,  as  expert  accountant,  to  help  us  on  this 
point.  He  furnished  the  senatorial  investigating  committee 


*  The  usual  publisher's  discount  to  dealers  or  to  school  boards 
in  the  case  of  an  exclusive  state  adoption  is  about  25  per  cent,  off 
the  list  price,  books  delivered. 

9 


with  an  estimate  of  the  rightful  cost  of  the  primer  and  the 
first  three  readers  as  follows :  primer,  24  cente;  first  reader, 
22  cents ;  second  reader,  25  cents ;  third  reader,^  cents.  This 
estimate  makes  a  total  cost  of  $1.04  for  the  four  books  as 
against  the  present  price  of  $1.28,  the  difference  of  24  cents 
representing  the  extracted  graft.  Under  local  adoptions, 
what  would  the  four  books  cost  our  children?  The  list  prices 
of  the  four  total  $1.39.  Deducting  20  per  cent,  for  county  or 
city  adoption,  and  adding  10  per  cent,  for  handling,  we  have 
$1.25  as  against  the  estimate  of  $1.04.  But  let  us  remember 
that  this  apparent  difference  of  21  cents  is  not  based  on  equal 
values  in  paper,  binding,  and  workmanship.  It  means  the 
difference  between  books  properly  made  and  those  that  read- 
ily fall  to  pieces.  It  means  books  that  will  last  twice  as  long. 
The  difference  in  quality  and  lasting  power  probably  more 
than  offsets  the  21  cents.  Furthermore,  be  it  remembered 
that  the  estimate  of  $1.04  is  merely  an  estimate  that  rests 
upon  an  assumption  of  a  businesslike  administration  of  the 
State  Printing  Office — an  assumption  negatived  by  the  experi- 
ence of  twenty-six  years. 

Exchange  of  Textbooks— However,  let  us  be  optimistic. 
Let  us  assume  that  the  state  could  sell  these  four  books  at 
$1.04  without  calling  upon  the  legislature  for  a  special  appro- 
priation for  the  State  Printing  Office.  Let  us  also  waive  the 
question  of  qualities  in  paper,  binding,  and  workmanship.  In 
connection  with  that  apparent  difference  of  21  cents,  there 
still  remains  another  consideration  which  knocks  the  last  prop 
from  under  a  belief  in  the  lower  cost  of  state  texts.  We 
refer  to  the  exchange  of  books  granted  by  publishers  under 
local  adoptions.  On  a  four  years'  adoption,  publishers  would 
grant  in  California  an  exchange  price  of  40  per  cent,  off  on 
all  books  sold  the  first  year  of  the  adoption.*  Figures  show 
that  under  exchange  not  less  than  40  per  cent,  of  all  books 
sold  under  a  four  years'  contract  are  sold  the  first  year  and 
that  75  per  cent,  of  these  purchases  are  on  exchange.  This 
represents  an  average  reduction  of  12  per  cent,  on  every  book 
sold  during  the  entire  period  of  adoption.  Under  our  plan 
of  state  publication  there  is  a  total  loss  whenever  a  book 
is  changed.  Since  educational  progress  makes  occasional 
changes  in  texts  necessary,  would  it  not  be  far  better  to  have 
a  system  that  would  not  leave  the  old  books  a  dead  loss  to 
pupils  and  parents?  If  the  book  bills  of  some  families  could 
be  cut  40  per  cent,  through  the  privilege  of  exchange,  there 
would  be  a  strong  incentive  to  keep  books  against  the  day  of 
exchange. 

Two  Payments  under  State  Publication — There  still  re- 
mains another  important  factor  in  the  cost  of  textbooks  that 


*  The   usual   exchange   price   for  the   first  year   of  an   exclusive 
State  adoption  is  about  60  per  cent,  off  the  list  price  of  the  book. 

10 


usually  is  lost  sight  of  completely.  Under  state  publication, 
the  people  of  California  have  been  called  upon  to  make  an 
indirect  second  payment  for  textbooks  in  addition  to  the  sums 
paid  directly  by  parents.  From  the  inception  of  state  pub- 
lication to  June  30,  1910,  the  parents  in  this  state  paid 
$2,553,824.29  directly  for  textbooks.  No  doubt  the  great  ma- 
jority of  these  parents  believed  they  were  paying  the  entire  cost 
of  the  books.  Far  from  it.  During  the  time  mentioned  the 
legislature  made  special  appropriations  aggregating  $607,600 
to  further  the  work  of  state  publication.  Thus,  in  addition 
to  the  sums  paid  directly  by  parents  for  books,  we  were 
obliged  to  add  from  the  state  treasury  23  per  cent.  more. 
However,  the  man  who  paid  four  dollars  for  his  children's 
books  did  not  realize  that  he  was  adding  nearly  another  dollar 
for  books  in  his  taxes.  If  he  had  realized  it,  we  should  have 
heard  from  him.  That  realization  would  have  shaken  his 
loyalty  to  a  professedly  independent  system  that  needs  23  per 
cent,  of  coddling  from  the  state  to  make  it  go.  If  this  parent 
were  a  business  man,  his  loyalty  to  the  system  would  probably 
have  been  completely  destroyed  by  the  consideration  that  if 
these  special  appropriations  of  $607,600  had  been  placed  at 
interest  at  5  per  cent.,  they  would  now  amount  to  at  least 
$1,250,000,  or  approximately  50  per  cent,  of  the  amount  paid 
by  the  parents.  Any  comparison  of  the  cost  of  books  under 
state  publication  with  the  cost  under  local  adoptions  that  does 
not  take  these  special  appropriations  into  account  is  mani- 
festly incomplete  and  unfair.  For,  waiving  the  question  of 
interest,  these  appropriations,  aggregating  23  per  cent,  of  the 
sums  paid  directly  for  the  books,  loom  up  in  any  honest  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject.  Though  usually  overlooked  in  textbook 
discussion,  these  appropriations  are  as  big  and  significant  as 
the  Fairmont  Hotel  on  the  skyline  of  San  Francisco.  They 
are  significant,  first,  in  removing  the  last  reasonable  doubt  as 
to  relative  costs  under  state  publication  and  local  adoptions. 
Secondly,  because  of  the  ease  with  which  we  lose  sight  of  these 
appropriations — the  money  of  all  the  people  rather  than  of 
individuals — they  are  significant  in  enforcing  the  necessity  of 
a  system  of  publication  and  adoption  close  to  the  people  and 
responsive  to  their  varying  needs,  before  we  dare  commit 
ourselves  to  free  texts.  No  more  serious  educational  blunder 
could  be  made  than  free  texts  under  state  publication.  Since 
free  texts  are  right  and  desirable,  it  is  evident  that  our  rigid, 
cost-concealing  system  of  state  publication  must  give  way  for 
the  introduction  of  free  texts  under  an  open,  elastic,  less  ex- 
pensive and  more  democratic  plan. 

While  this   accumulation  of  evidence  may  not  be  re- 
garded as  demonstrably  conclusive  in  detail,  it  points  very 

11 


clearly  to  the  conclusion  that  from  1885  to  1913  the 
prices  at  which  books  were  sold  to  the  people  under  the 
state  publication  plan  were  on  the  whole  no  less  than 
prices  at  which  they  might  have  been  purchased  from 
publishers.  In  addition,  the  people  paid  the  state  $812,- 
354,  for  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  they  were  paying 
for  publishing  the  books  as  well  as  for  the  books  them- 
selves. 

The  present  free  textbook  law  in  California  is  different 
from  that  of  any  other  state.  In  other  states  the  local 
community  buys  the  books  and  distributes  them  to  pupils. 
In  California  the  state  bears  the  whole  expense,  including 
transportation,  leaving  to  school  boards  only  the  work  of 
distribution  to  pupils,  and  the  cost  is  paid  out  of  direct 
appropriations  from  the  state  treasury. 

In  the  administration  of  State  Printer  F.  W.  Richard- 
son, the  prices  of  books  were  twice  reduced,  once  just 
before  and  once  just  after  the  law  was  enacted  providing 
for  free  texts,  beginning  about  January  1,  1913.  The 
prices  fixed  after  the  enactment  of  the  free  textbook  law 
may  be  regarded  as  nominal,  for  it  is  admitted  that  they  do 
not  cover  all  the  costs  of  publication.  It  makes  very 
little  difference  to  the  people  what  these  prices  are,  since 
the  state  provides  pupils  in  the  public  schools  with  books 
free  of  cost.  The  few  books  that  are  sold  are  used  by 
pupils  in  private  schools  and  by  that  small  number  of 
pupils  in  public  schools  who  want  books  of  their  own. 

The  arguments  sometimes  offered  in  favor  of  the  plan  of 
state  publication  of  school  books  in  California  are  very 
misleading.  While  Mr.  Richardson  was  State  Printer  and 
a  year  before  the  time  when  he  was  elected  State  Treasurer, 
there  appeared  in  his  paper,  the  Berkeley  Gazette,*  for  Oc- 

*  See  also  the  report  of  F.  W.  Richardson,  Superintendent  State 
Printing,  dated  Oct.  4,  1913. 

12 


tober  6,  1913,  an  article  in  which  it  is  claimed  that  by  his 
efficient  management  of  the  state  textbook  business  he  had 
saved  to  the  state  from  January  1,  1913,  to  October  1, 
1913,  the  sum  of  $265,477.89.  The  following  extract  from 
this  article  contains  the  figures  used  in  that  argument: 


During  the  nine  months  from  January  first  to  October 
first,  1,231,681  schoolbooks  were  distributed  from  the  Cali- 
fornia Printing  Office.  The  table  below  shows  the  state's 
manufacturing  cost  plus  royalty,  as  against  the  catalogue  list 
price  of  the  book  companies  to  dealers: 

State's  Mfg.  Cost          Book  Company 
Name  of  Book  Plus  Royalty  Catalogue  Price 

Primer  $7,972.35  $17,007.68 

First  Reader   7,609.46  16,793.28 

Second  Reader   7,737.30  18,053.70 

Third  Reader 9,085.50  20,190.00 

Fourth  Reader 10,722.19  27,259.80 

Fifth  Reader  9,886.67  30,640.50 

Speller—One    11,477.14  19,637.00 

Speller—Two   8,836.70  19,637.10 

First    Arithmetic 10,983.87  22,613.85 

Advanced  Arithmetic   17,200.00  41,280.00 

New  Lessons— One 20,857.54  42,470.10 

New  Lessons— Two   17,657.25  42,377.40 

Introductory   History    10,385.86  20,431.20 

Brief  History 11,405.35  28,092.00 

Introductory  Geography  ....  11,558.98  20,398.20 

Advanced  Geography 15,634.53  33,048.60 

Primer  Hygiene    8,466.34  19,920.80 

Civics    10,717.50  26,793.75 

Total  $219,691.95  $485,169.84 

Book  Company  Price $485,169.84 

State  Printing  Cost 219,691.95 


$265,477.89 

This  table  shows  the  cost  of  manufacturing  state  schoolbooks 
at  the  California  State  Printing  Office,  under  the  administra- 
tion of  State  Printer  Friend  W.  Richardson,  and  the  price 
at  which  the  same  books  are  sold  by  the  book  companies  to 
dealers.  A  full  set  of  books  manufactured  by  the  State  of 

13 


California,  including  royalties,  costs  $4.61,  while  the  same  set 
costs  $10.42  when  purchased  from  the  book  companies. 


Name  of  Book 


Mfg.  Mfg.  Cost 

Cost        Royalty   and  Royalty 


Primer   $0.102          $0.048  $0.15 

First  Reader    097  .048  .145 

Second  Reader   0975  .0525  .15 

Third  Reader 12  .06  .18 

Fourth  Reader   146  .09  .236 

Fifth  Reader 15.2  .09  .242 

Speller— One    107  .025  .132 

Speller— Two    11  .025  .135 

Elementary  Arithmetic 1175  .0525  .17 

Advanced  Arithmetic 16  .09  .25 

New  Eng.  I^ss.  1 1535  .0675  .221 

New  Eng.  Less.  II 16  .09  .25 

Introductory  History 155  .15  .305 

Brief  History    256  .15  .406 

Introductory  Geography 25  .09  .34 

Advanced  Geography 465  .15  .615 

Hygiene 11  .06  .17 

Civics    175  .125  .30 

Writing,  Book  1 032  .01  .042 

Writing,  Book  II 032  .01  .042 

Writing,  Book  III 032  .01  .043 

Writing,  Book  IV 032  .01  .042 

Writing,  Book  V 032  .01  .042 

Books  VI,  VII  and  VIII  * 


Co. 
List 
Price 


.32 
.35 
.40 
.60 
.75 
.25 
.30 
.35 
.60 
.45 
.60 
.60 

1.00 
.60 

1.30 
.40 
.75 
.06 
.06 
.06 
.06 
.06 
.18 


$4.61        $10.42 
•California  Writing  Books  combine  eight  books  in  five. 

This  article  is  not  only  misleading  in  its  general  import, 
but  at  some  points  it  is  absolutely  in  error.  Note  the  fol- 
lowing necessary  corrections: 


1.  The  article  gives  as  the  cost  of  the  books  to  the 
state  under  the  plan  of  state  publication,  the  manufactur- 
ing cost  plus  the  royalty,  that  is,  the  price  that  the  deal- 
ers pay  for  books  on  the  cars  at  Sacramento.  It  com- 
pares these  prices  with  the  publisher's  list  prices,  that  is, 
the  prices  at  which  publishers  agree  to  sell  single  books, 

14 


whereas  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  publishers  regularly 
give  dealers  or  school  boards  a  discount  of  20  per  cent, 
from  list  prices,  and  that  in  the  case  of  a  state  adoption 
they  grant  a  discount  of  25  per  cent,  from  list  prices,  and 
pay  cost  of  delivery  to  the  dealers.  In  this  case  the  dis- 
count alone  amounts  to  $121,292.46,  and  the  item  desig- 
nated as  the  "Book  Company  price"  should  be  reduced 
by  that  amount. 

2.  There  is  misrepresentation  of  the  publisher's  retail 
prices,  as  given  in  the  column  headed  "Co.  List  Price." 
The  Fifth  Reader  should  be  listed  at  60  cents  instead  of  at 
75  cents;  the  Advanced  Geography  at  $1.00  instead  of 
$1.30;  the  Writing  books  at  5  cents  each  instead  of  at  6 
cents  each.    This  correction  makes  a  difference  of  50  cents 
in  the  sum  of  the  column. 

3.  The  statement  of  the  "manufacturing  cost  and  roy- 
alty" does  not  include  the  total  cost,  but  only  certain  items 
arbitrarily  chosen  to  represent  that  cost.     It  takes  no 
account  of  the  interest  on  the  investment  in  the  printing 
plant  and  revolving  fund,  of  the  depreciation  of  the  plant, 
and  of  the  salaries  of  the  State  Printer  and  other  officers. 
Every  business  man  knows  that  these  three  items — inter- 
est, depreciation  and  salaries — constitute  a  large  part  of 
the  expense  of  a  business. 

4.  The  article  takes  no  account  of  the  fact  that  the 
mechanical  make-up  of  the  books  printed  by  the  State  of 
California  is  very  inferior  in  quality  and  that  any  pub- 
lisher, if  permitted  to   furnish  such  books  to  the  state, 
would  gladly  reduce  his  prices  very  considerably. 

When  these  four  points  are  taken  into  consideration, 
the  saving  of  $265,000  claimed  in  the  article  quoted  is 
very  greatly  diminished.  The  first  point  reduces  it  by 
more  than  $121,000  outright,  and  the  second,  third,  and 

15 


fourth  points  may  fairly  be  assumed  to  do  away  with  the 
balance.  Indeed,  that  there  is  no  saving  at  all,  even  un- 
der the  newest,  lowest  prices  at  which  the  State  Printer 
claims  to  be  able  to  manufacture  the  books  is  clearly  indi- 
cated by  the  following  summary  of  cost  and  returns  since 
January  1,  1913. 

It  is  a  matter  of  record  that  the  appropriations  made 
for  the  manufacture  of  textbooks  since  January  1,  1913, 
and  the  assets  in  cash  and  books,  April  1,  1915,  are  as 
follows : 


Books  on  hand  Jan.  1,  1913 $72,451.79 

Cash  in  School  Book  Fund,  appropriated  Feb. 

4,  1913   155,803.66 

Appropriated  from  state,  Feb.  3,  1913 10,000.00 

Appropriated  from  state,  June  9,  1913 500,000.00 

$738,255.45     $738,255.45 

Cash  on  hand  April  1,  1915   $247,317.42 

Books  on  hand  April  1,  1915 89,566.04 


$336,883.46       336,883.46 


Net  cost  of  books  between  Jan.  1,  1913,  and  April  1,  1915.  .$401,371.99 

This  figure,  $401,371.99,  represents  only  the  cost  of 
the  basal  elementary  textbooks  listed  above,  for  in  the 
State  of  California  supplementary  readers,  library  books, 
and  high  school  textbooks  are  not  provided  by  the  State 
Printer.  Now  it  is  a  fact  well  known  among  school  men, 
that  the  cost  of  supplementary  readers,  library  books, 
and  high  school  textbooks  amounts  to  from  one-third  to 
one-half  of  the  total  expenditure  for  textbooks.  But, 
according  to  a  recent  report  of  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Education,  the  average  annual  expense  for  school  books 
per  pupil  enrolled  in  the  public  schools  of  the  United 
States  is  $0.783.  According  to  the  same  authority,  in 

16 


1912-13  the  schools  of  California  enrolled  446,916  pupils. 
The  annual  expense  for  school  books  should  be,  therefore, 
about  $350,000,  and  for  two  years  about  $700,000.  De- 
ducting from  this  $700,000  the  estimated  amount  which 
has  been  paid  to  publishers  for  high  school  books,  supple- 
mentary readers  and  library  books,  we  find  that  the  cost 
during  the  two-year  period  would  have  been,  had  the 
basal  books  for  the  elementary  grades  been  purchased 
direct  from  the  publisher,  between  $350,000  and  $466,000, 
say  $400,000.  This  amount  is  slightly  less  than  the  State 
of  California  spent  from  January  1,  1913,  to  April  1, 
1915,  and  it  indicates  that  even  during  this  period,  the 
period  of  supposed  lowest  cost  in  the  history  of  the  proj- 
ect in  California,  there  has  been  no  saving  over  the  cost 
that  would  have  been  incurred  had  the  books  been  pur- 
chased direct  from  the  publishers.  Moreover,  in  this 
statement  no  account  is  taken  of  the  interest  on  the  enor- 
mous investment  for  state  publication  or  of  the  fact  that 
the  books  used  are  much  inferior  in  quality  to  those  which 
the  publisher  would  have  supplied  at  no  greater  cost. 

We  desire  to  be  absolutely  fair  toward  the  project  of 
state  publication  and  to  draw  no  inferences  that  are  not 
warranted  by  facts.  We  believe,  however,  that  the  evi- 
dence presented  in  the  preceding  pages  shows  beyond  the 
shadow  of  a  doubt  that  the  textbooks  published  by  the 
state  have  cost  the  State  of  California  a  great  deal  more 
than  they  would  have  cost  had  they  been  purchased  from 
publishers.  We  fail  to  find  any  ground  whatever  for  the 
"belief"  expressed  in  a  bulletin  issued  by  State  Superin- 
tendent Edward  Hyatt,  in  July,  1915,  in  which  he  says: 

We  believe  that  the  state  is  getting  its  service  of  text- 
books at  a  saving  of  at  least  25  per  cent.,  everything  con- 
sidered, over  what  it  would  cost  if  given  to  private  publishers 
in  the  regular  way. 

17 


Apparently  this  statement  is  based  upon  a  comparison 
of  the  so-called  "cost  and  selling  prices  at  Sacramento" 
and  the  publisher's  list  prices  of  the  same  books.  Taken 
by  itself,  this  comparison  is  as  misleading  and  fallacious 
in  its  import  as  the  article  in  the  Berkeley  Gazette,  previ- 
ously discussed,  except  that  apparently  there  is  no  mis- 
quotation of  publisher's  prices.  Mr.  Hyatt  acknowledges, 
however,  that 

the  comparison  is  not  quite  fair  perhaps,  in  that  some 
of  the  overhead  expense,  as  the  salaries  of  some  managers 
and  editors,  the  cost  of  exploiting,  the  interest  and  deprecia- 
tion of  plant,  the  losses  by  unsuccessful  books,  is  not  included 
in  reckoning  the  California  costs. 

This  is  just  the  point  at  which  the  arguments  of  the 
supporters  of  state  publication  break  down.  They  do  not 
honestly  take  account  of  all  the  cost  factors.  It  will 
certainly  require  a  fuller,  fairer  and  more  convincing 
statement  of  figures  and  facts  than  that  given  in  the  Ga- 
zette article  or  in  the  State  Superintendent's  bulletin  to 
commend  state  publication  to  the  man  who  thinks.  In 
the  light  of  available  facts  and  the  testimony  of  prominent 
officials,  the  cost  of  state  publication  in  California  now 
stands  condemned  so  far  as  expense  is  concerned. 

Moreover,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  state  is 
still  paying,  or  rather  losing,  the  interest  on  the  $812,- 
354  that  it  appropriated  and  lost  between  1885  and  1913, 
and  that  for  nearly  thirty  years  it  has  done  its  school 
children  the  great  injustice  of  requiring  them  to  use  text- 
books some  of  which  were  inferior  in  content,  and  all  of 
which  were  very  inferior  in  mechanical  make-up. 

The  attitude  of  thoughtful  California  people  towards 
the  present  law  is  expressed  in  the  following  editorial  that 
appeared  in  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle  for  August  4, 
1914. 

18 


OUR  FREE  TEXTBOOKS 

WE  ARE  HAVING  A  COSTLY  EXPERIENCE,  FROM  WHICH  WE 
SHOULD  LEARN 

The  experience  of  California  covers  about  all  forms  of  pro- 
viding and  distributing  school  textbooks,  from  the  go-as-you- 
please  plan  with  which  we  began  business  to  the  adoption  of 
a  uniform  series  by  a  legislature  which  knew  nothing  about 
the  matter  and  cared  less,  and  thence  through  county  and 
city  independent  adoptions  to  state  uniformity  in  the  use  of 
books  written  by  local  educational  lights  at  so  much  a  month, 
rewritten  by  a  "literary  proofreader  and  editor  in  chief," 
and  then  printed  at  the  State  Printing  Office  and  sold  at 
"cost,"  which  was  something  more  than  books  of  the  same  size 
were  sold  for  elsewhere,  after  having  been  purchased  from  the 
wicked  and  notorious  book  ring. 

Then,  at  the  demand  of  the  outraged  teachers,  we  dumped 
the  entire  lot  of  home-produced  texts  as  junk  and  entered 
into  contracts  with  the  "book  ring" — there  isn't  any  book  ring 
that  we  know  of,  but  that  is  what  they  call  it — to  rent  plates 
of  standard  textbooks  and  print  them  at  the  State  Printing 
Office  on  a  royalty.  But  the  "cost"  would  not  go  down.  The 
people,  having  decided  that  they  were  unable  to  elect  a 
State  Printer  to  suit  them,  made  the  office  appointive,  and 
agreed  to  distribute  the  books  free. 

The  present  State  Printer,  not  being  inclined  to  steal,  did 
greatly  reduce  the  cost,  or  rather  the  alleged  cost,  of  the 
books — state  costs  do  not  consider  cost  and  depreciation  of 
plant — but  it  was  no  saving  to  the  State,  for,  under  free  dis- 
tribution, the  number  of  books  called  for  was  several  times 
greater  than  had  ever  been  used  before,  whereby  the  pub- 
lishers whose  plates  were  being  used  profited  mightily. 

The  distribution  of  books  last  year  was  a  scandal.  For  that 
not  the  State  Printer  was  to  blame,  but  the  educational  ad- 
ministration and  "the  People."  It  is  evident  that,  although 
the  free  books  were  the  same  that  had  been  used,  every  young 
one  in  the  state  demanded  a  new  book,  even  if  the  house  was 
full  of  books  which  had  been  purchased.  It  was  a  case  of  a 
unanimous  rush  of  the  People  to  graft  on  themselves. 

This  was  permitted  by  the  educational  authorities,  from  the 
state  office  down.  No  matter  whether  the  child  needed  a  new 
book  or  not,  he  got  it,  and  no  questions  asked. 

No  records  of  use  are  kept.  No  books  are  turned  back 
when  the  pupils  have  done  with  them.  Books  covering  several 
years'  work  are  issued  when  the  pupil  first  needs  them,  and 
are  worn  out,  even  by  good  honest  usage  before  the  pupil  has 
finished  the  grades  where  they  are  used. 

But  there  is  no  record  to  show  whether  they  are  used  hon- 

19 


estly  or  not,  which  makes  it  certain  that  they  will  not  be  so 
used.  If  a  book  is  lost,  the  child  apparently  gets  another. 
There  is  probably  no  instance  of  a  book  having  been  used 
by  one  child  and  passed  down  in  fair  order  to  a  younger  one 
of  the  same  family,  as  was  done  in  the  bad  old  days  when  each 
family  bought  its  own  books. 

It  is  stated  that  there  is  absolutely  no  record  of  what  be- 
comes of  the  books  after  they  pass  into  the  maw  of  the  educa- 
tional system.  And  the  taxpayers  foot  the  bills.  No  matter. 
Nobody  loves  the  taxpayer  any  more. 

It  is  said  that  this  year  the  demand  for  books  is  much  less 
than  that  of  last  year — thus  far.  In  fact,  but  about  one-third 
as  great.  Considering  the  number  given  away  last  year,  one- 
tenth  the  number  should  be  sufficient  this  year — and  would 
be,  if  the  parents  had  to  buy  them. 

So  long  as  the  state  gives  away  school  textbooks,  ordinary 
prudence  would  suggest  a  pretty  severe  method  of  accounting 
for  those  in  use. 

GEORGIA. — In  August,  1913,  the  General  Assembly  of 
Georgia  appointed  a  Joint  Commission  of  Eight 

to  inquire  into  and  report  as  soon  as  practicable  on  the 
reasonableness  of  the  present  price  of  school  books,  and 
inquire  into  the  prices  of  books  used  elsewhere,  and  also  as 
to  the  practicability  of  the  State  furnishing  school  books  for 
use  in  the  public  schools  at  cost  of  publication. 

The  essential  points  in  the  printed  report  of  this  Com- 
mission are  as  follows : 

1.  The  cost  of  a  complete  set  of  the  required  basal  school 
books  used  in  the  grades  below  the  high  school  in  twenty- 
one  states  having  uniform  textbook  adoption  was  found 
to  be  as  follows : 

Alabama    $9.85  Nevada $10.65 

Arizona    9.95  New  Mexico 10.42 

Florida 10.10  N.  Carolina 8.97 

Georgia    7.90  Oklahoma 8.20 

Idaho    10.09  Oregon   9.52 

Indiana    5.85  S.  Carolina   8.68 

Kansas    5.57  Tennessee  9.09 

Kentucky  8.82  Texas    11.83 

Louisiana  9.94  Utah   17.41 

Mississippi 9.54  Virginia  9.79 

Montana 10.65  W.  Virginia   11.97 

20 


The  considerable  discrepancy  apparent  in  the  total  cost 
of  books  in  the  various  states  is  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  list  of  books  adopted  in  some  states  is  much  more 
extensive  than  that  in  others.  An  examination  of  these 
lists  shows  that  the  cost  per  book  is  almost  exactly  the 
same. 

2.  Consideration  of  the  school  book  situation  in  Cali- 
fornia resulted  in  the  following  conclusions: 


A — The  cost  to  the  parent  of  the  books  made  by  California, 
all  things  considered,  has  not  been,  upon  an  average,  cheaper 
than  the  Georgia  texts; 

B — It  is  only  just  to  state  that  there  has  always  been 
considerable  question,  expressed,  sometimes  even  by  the  Cali- 
fornia people  themselves,  as  to  the  quality  of  their  books; 

C — It  is  beyond  doubt  true  that  these  California  texts  are 
inferior  from  the  standpoint  of  paper,  print  and  binding — 
,  this  fact  is  apparent  even  to  the  careless  observer. 

Even  now,  with  all  the  experience  of  that  State  and  with 
the  best  efforts  of  the  most  successful  State  Printer  they  have 
ever  before  secured,  F.  W.  Richardson,  the  basal  books  for 
the  public  schools  do  not  seem  to  be  able  to  be  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  children  of  California  much  cheaper  than  with 
us,  to  say  nothing  whatever  of  the  salaries  of  the  officials,  the 
enormous  sum  invested  in  the  printing  plant,  and  the  waste 
of  unsatisfactory  books  which  have  been  made  and  thrown, 
away.  .  .  .  The  prices  (cost  of  books)  do  not  take  into 
consideration  the  deterioration  of  the  plant,  interest  on  money 
invested  and  possibly  some  of  the  salaries  of  officials,  etc.; 
neither  do  patrons  have  the  benefit  of  exchange  price.  It  is 
proper  to  state  that  California  has  adopted  free  text  book 
legislation.  This  does  not  alter  the  fact,  however,  that  the 
expense  is  the  same  and  must  be  defrayed  by  the  taxpayer, 
even  if  it  is  removed  from  his  shoulders  under  another  name. 


3.  Consideration  of  the  schoolbook  situation  in  Kansas 
resulted  in  the  following  conclusion: 


From  the  situation  in  this  State  it  is  difficult  to  secure 
much  argument,  as  yet  at  least,  to  authorize  the  creation  of  a 
printing  plant  and  the  publication  of  school  books  by  the 
State. 

21 


4».  To  test  the  question  of  manufacturing  cost,  the 
Georgia  Commission  requested  bids  from  several  printing 
establishments  for  the  printing  and  binding  of  five  books, 
which  presumably  they  would  have  been  willing  to  accept 
for  use  in  their  schools.  The  bids  submitted  were  as  fol- 
lows: Primer,  12  to  12%  cents;  Elementary  Arithmetic, 
20  to  23%  cents;  Reader,  Book  V,  22  to  22%  cents; 
Copy  Books,  5  to  7  cents  each. 

These  prices  show  that  it  would  be  quite  impossible  to 
make  any  saving  to  the  state  under  state  publication.  It 
should  be  kept  in  mind  that  these  prices  are  for  paper, 
printing,  and  binding  only,  and  do  not  include  any  charge 
for  author's  royalty,  local  dealer's  profits,  cost  of  distri- 
bution, transportation  charge,  etc. 

It  is  particularly  interesting  here  to  note  that  the  Geor- 
gia Commission,  in  asking  for  prices  from  printers  who 
were,  of  course,  anxious  to  do  the  work,  received  bids  for 
paper,  printing,  and  binding  alone  which  were  far  in  ex- 
cess of  the  retail  prices  of  similar  books  in  Canada,  as  the 
following  comparison  shows: 

Bid  to  Ontario 

Commission       retail  price 

Primer $.12  to  $.125  $.04 

Elementary  Arithmetic   ...        .20  to     .235  .10 

Reader,  Book  5 22  to     .225  .16 

Copy  Books,  each 05  to     .07  .02 

This  comparison  confirms  the  statement  made  in  an 
early  part  of  this  paper  that  the  conditions  in  Canada 
are  so  different  from  those  in  the  United  States  as  to 
render  price  comparisons  practically  worthless. 

5.  With  regard  to  the  Ontario  books,  the  Commission 
says: 

92 


Without  saying  anything  as  to  the  quality  of  these  books, 
although  educational  experts  have  been  practically  a  unit  in 
pronouncing  them  inferior  to  our  own  texts,  it  is  a  fact  easily 
ascertained  that  they  are  able  to  be  sold  at  so  low  a  price  be- 
cause of  two  reasons:  First,  a  part  of  the  expense  is  borne 
by  the  Government,  and  second,  another  part  by  the  depart- 
ment store  for  the  sake  of  the  advertising. 

6.  The  summarized  conclusions  of  the  Commission  are 
as  follows: 

A — Compared  with  the  prices  paid  for  similar  books  in 
other  States  in  this  country,  the  cost  in  Georgia  is  not  only 
reasonable  but  actually  considerably  less  than  the  average 
paid  in  the  other  forty-seven  commonwealths  of  this  Union. 

B — The  California  plan,  which  involves  the  purchase  and 
equipment  of  a  printing  plant,  managed  by  State  officials,  for 
the  purpose  of  printing  State  school  books,  does  not  appear 
to  be  desirable  for  Georgia. 

C — We  would  not  recommend  the  publication  of  our  school 
texts  by  the  Ontario  plan. 

Six  of  the  eight  members  of  the  Commission  agreed  to 
the  first  two  of  these  conclusions.  One  member,  who  was 
absent  on  account  of  illness,  did  not  sign  the  report;  a 
second  presented  a  minority  report  concerning  point  C, 
and  in  its  place  recommended: 

that  the  State  Department  of  Education  be  authorized  to 
rent  or  lease  plates  and  manuscript  and  print  one  other  text 
[besides  one  of  "local  coloring"]  such  as  may  be  deemed  ad- 
visable, of  the  common  and  high  school  books,  through  com- 
petitive bids  by  publishers. 

A  third  member  of  the  Commission,  who,  to  judge  from 
the  printed  Report,  is  more  politician  than  educator, 
presented  a  minority  report  in  which  he  maintained,  though 
without  presenting  evidence,  that  it  would  be  possible  for 
the  state  to  secure  satisfactory  texts  at  prices  much  lower 
than  those  previously  paid. 

The  bill  providing  for  state  publication  in  Georgia 
was  defeated. 

23 


KANSAS. — Previous  to  the  year  1913  there  existed  in 
Kansas  a  law  which  provided  for  state  uniformity  in  ele- 
mentary school  books  and  which  fixed  a  maximum  price 
to  be  paid  for  the  same.  Because  of  this  maximum  price 
limit  publishers  often  found  it  impossible  to  offer  their 
best  books,  and  consequently  the  schools  were  compelled 
to  use  books  of  inferior  quality. 

In  1913  a  law  was  enacted 


creating  a  state  schoolbook  commission  with  power  to 
acquire  by  purchase  or  by  condemnation  proceedings  the 
ground  necessary  on  which  to  erect  building  or  buildings 
additional  to  the  present  state  printing  plant,  to  construct 
buildings  thereon,  to  purchase  necessary  machinery,  type 
and  other  printing  and  binding  material  to  print  and  bind 
school  books,  to  procure  copyrights  for  same,  or  to  contract 
for  the  right  to  publish  said  school  books,  on  a  royalty  basis, 
and  to  provide  for  the  preparation,  publication,  purchase, 
sale  and  distribution  of  a  state  series  of  school  textbooks  at 
cost,  making  appropriations  therefor  and  providing  penalties 
for  the  violation  of  this  act  and  repealing  all  acts  and  parts 
of  acts  in  so  far  as  they  conflict  or  are  inconsistent  with  this 
act. 


The  most  significant  provisions  of  this  law  are  as  fol- 
lows: 

The  Commission  consists  of  seven  members:  the  State 
Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  the  President  of  the 
State  Normal  School,  the  President  of  the  State  Agri- 
cultural College,  the  President  of  the  State  Board  of 
Agriculture,  the  State  Printer,  and  two  other  persons  to 
be  appointed  by  the  Governor.  The  Commission  employs 
as  secretary,  textbook  expert  and  executive  officer  of  the 
Commission,  an  outside  person  whose  salary  shall  not 
exceed  $2,000  per  year.  The  Commission  shall  "write, 
select,  compile,  or  cause  to  be  written,  or  compiled,  or 
purchased"  elementary  textbooks.  When  a  book  has  been 
authorized  and  published  by  the  Commission  it  shall  be 

24 


used  exclusively.  The  use  of  supplementary  books  is  for- 
bidden. The  price  of  a  book  shall  be  based  upon  the  State 
Printer's  estimate  of  its  cost,  including  the  cost  of  mate- 
rial, labor,  copyrights,  royalty,  authorship,  and  other 
necessary  expenses.  There  shall  be  appropriated  out  of 
the  state  treasury  $50,000  for  additions  to  the  state 
printing  plant,  $25,000  to  pay  authors,  artists,  com- 
pilers and  stenographers  and  to  purchase  copyrights  and 
other  supplies,  $50,000  to  be  used  as  a  revolving  fund  for 
the  purchase  of  paper,  printer's  and  binder's  material 
and  for  labor,  $2,000  for  a  contingent  fund,  $2,000  for 
the  Secretary's  salary,  and  $1,000  for  the  expenses  of 
the  Commission  from  July  1,  1913,  to  July  1,  1915. 
There  is  a  fine  of  from  $25  to  $100  for  using  textbooks 
contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  Act — for  example,  for 
using  supplementary  books. 

It  is  now  two  years  since  this  law  was  enacted.  In  the 
meantime  a  Primer,  a  History  of  Kansas  and  a  collection 
of  Classics  for  the  eighth  grade  have  been  published  un- 
der the  law.* 

The  Primer  was  prepared  by  a  local  author.  Artists 
were  employed  to  illustrate  it  at  a  cost  of  about  $2,000. 
The  book  was  edited  by  the  secretary  of  the  commission, 
assisted  by  a  former  school  book  man  who  had  been  act- 
ively interested  in  securing  the  passage  of  the  law.  The 
author  is  reported  to  have  said  that  in  the  Primer  as 
finally  published  she  scarcely  recognized  her  own  work. 
Complete  copyright  privileges  were  purchased  outright 
from  the  author  at  a  cost  of  $2,000.  The  Primer  is  sold 
at  fourteen  cents.  A  casual  examination  shows  poor  print- 
ing and  binding,  to  say  nothing  of  more  essential  qualities. 

*  Since  this  statement  was  written  we  are  informed  that  two 
other  books  have  been  published,  an  Elementary  Agriculture  pre- 
pared by  two  professors  in  the  Agricultural  College  at  the  request 
of  the  State,  and  a  Geometry  printed  from  rented  plates. 

25 


The  History  of  Kansas  was  written  by  a  local  county 
superintendent.  The  work  was  purchased  by  cash  pay- 
ment of  $3,500  to  the  author,  $500  of  this  amount  to 
be  spent  for  revision  and  editing.  As  accepted  by  the 
commission,  it  was  thought  to  be  too  crude  for  publication, 
and  it  was  edited  by  one  or  more  professors  in  one  of  the 
higher  educational  institutions  of  the  state.  In  paper, 
printing  and  binding  there  is  much  to  be  desired.  The 
illustrations  are  particularly  unsatisfactory.  The  book 
is  sold  for  twenty- two  cents. 

The  book  of  Selections  for  the  eighth  grade  was  edited 
by  the  secretary  of  the  commission  and  by  a  professor 
of  English  in  the  State  Agricultural  College.  The  selec- 
tions are  standard,  but  the  book  is  poorly  printed  and 
bound.  It  sells  for  eighteen  cents. 

The  State  Printer  reports  the  cost  of  these  books  as 

follows :  * 

Cost 

PRIMER— Edition,  80,000.  per  copy 

Manuscript   ($2,000),  illustrations,  engraving  and 

electrotyping    $4,731.75 

Distributed   over  200,000 $0.0236587 

Composition    409.32 

Distributed  over  200,000 .0020493 

Press  work   $   550.31 

Binding   2,118.92 

2,669.23 

Distributed   over  80,000 .0333654 

Paper  stock $1,955.18 

Binding  stock    1,894.38 

3,849.56 
Distributed   over  80,000 .0481195 


$0.1071929 
Cost  of  distributing  to  dealers .01 


Total $0.1171929 

Price  to  dealers .12 

*  "The  Kansas  Teacher,"  March,  1915.  The  amounts  paid  for 
the  manuscripts,  $2,000  for  the  Primer  and  $3,500  for  the  Kansas 
History  are  not  definitely  given  in  the  State  Printer's  report. 


Cost 
KANSAS  HISTORY— Edition,  40,000.  per  copy 

Manuscript   ($3,500),  illustrations,  engraving  and 

electrotyping    $3,998.34 

Distributed   over   100,000 $0.0399834 

Composition    513.75 

Distributed  over   100,000 .0051375 

Press  work  $   358.20 

Binding    1,627.96 

1,986.16 

Distributed  over  40,000 .0496540 

Paper  stock   $1,429.27 

Binding  stock       935.09 

2,364.36 
Distributed  over  40,000 .0591090 

$0.1538839 
Cost  of  distributing  to  dealers .015 

Total    $0.1688839 

Price  to  dealers .22 

Cost 
EIGHTH  GRADE  CLASSICS— Edition,  25,000.  per  copy 

Copyrights,  etc $  181.00 

Distributed  over  60,000 $0.0030167 

Composition  and  stereotype 1,036.84 

Distributed  over  60,000 .0172866 

Press  work   $   241.05 

Binding    1,057.68 

1,298.73 

Distributed   over  25,000 .0519492 

Paper  stock    $1,024.47 

Binding  stock    597.41 

1,621.88 
Distributed  over  25,000 .0648752 

$0.1371277 
Cost  of  distributing  to  dealers .02 

Total    $0.1571277 

Price  to  dealers .18 

27 


It  will  be  noted  that  the  cost  of  these  books  as  given 
in  the  above  estimates  is  contingent  upon  the  sale  of  con- 
siderable numbers — 200,000  Primers,  100,000  Histories 
and  60,000  Classics.  If  the  experience  of  California 
should  be  repeated,  however,  and  these  books  should  be 
discarded  as  unsatisfactory  before  the  estimated  numbers 
are  sold,  the  cost  of  those  manufactured  will  be  corre- 
spondingly increased  and  the  first  cost  of  copyright  and 
plates,  which  is  always  a  relatively  large  item,  will  be  al- 
most a  total  loss. 

It  will  be  noted  also  that  the  estimate  includes  no  state- 
ment of  overhead  charges — that  is,  interest  on  the  invest- 
ment, depreciation  of  plant  and  plates,  salaries,  storage, 
insurance,  postage,  official  printing,  contingent  fees,  etc. 
Interest  on  the  investment,  to  date  about  $230,000,  at  six 
per  cent,  is  $13,000  annually.  The  other  items  probably 
amount  to  at  least  $17,000  per  year,  making  a  total  of 
$30,000,  which  sum  must  certainly  be  included  in  an  ade- 
quate statement  of  cost  to  the  state. 

Let  it  be  said  again  that  it  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible, 
to  secure  an  adequate  and  accurate  statement  of  the  cost 
of  books  under  the  plan  of  state  publication,  but  it  is  un- 
doubtedly much  greater  than  would  appear  from  any 
statement  that  is  based  upon  royalty  and  manufacturing 
charges  alone.  The  State  of  Kansas  may  be  paying  a 
little  more  or  a  little  less  for  the  three  books  named  above 
than  it  would  pay  for  similar  (but  better)  books  provided 
under  the  competitive  plan  of  publication.  Whether  the 
cost  is  a  little  greater  or  a  little  less  is  relatively  unim- 
portant. The  farmers  and  business  men  of  Kansas  are 
wisely  demanding  the  newest  and  the  most  approved  ma- 
chinery with  which  to  conduct  their  business,  and  so  long 
as  the  difference  in  cost  is  not  great,  certainly  there  is 
no  argument  for  forcing  upon  the  schools  of  Kansas  books 

98 


which  are  inferior  either  in  content  or  in  mechanical 
features. 

When  the  law  of  1913  was  passed  there  was  a  practi- 
cally unanimous  sentiment  among  the  school  people  of  the 
state  and  a  strong  feeling  among  many  others  that  the 
whole  question  should  be  thoroughly  investigated  for  two 
years  before  positive  action  was  taken.  This  proposition 
was  voted  down,  however,  and  the  law  was  enacted  in  the 
form  indicated  above.  The  people  generally  have  been 
dissatisfied  with  it  and  apparently  it  has  not  worked  out 
as  well  as  its  supporters  expected,  for  the  Legislature 
of  1915  amended  the  law  of  1913  at  several  points,  chief 
among  which  are  that  the  Commission  shall  "as  soon  as 
and  when  practicable,  print,  publish,  or  provide  for  the 
publication  of  a  complete  series  of  school  textbooks"  in- 
cluding high  school  texts ;  they  shall  provide  by  adoption 
for  such  books  as  they  "find  it  impossible  or  impracticable 
to  print  or  publish ;"  the  use  of  supplementary  books  ap- 
proved by  the  Commission  is  permitted. 

It  is  evident  that  this  amendment  of  1915  corrects  some 
very  serious  defects  in  the  law  of  1913,  in  that  it  provides 
for  the  use  of  supplementary  books  and  for  the  adoption  of 
books  in  cases  in  which  it  is  found  "impracticable  to  print 
or  publish  them."  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  state 
will  persist  in  its  original  purpose  to  publish  its  school 
books  or  whether  it  will  find  adoption  from  the  open  field 
the  wiser  plan. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  foregoing  account  of  the  expe- 
rience of  California  and  Kansas  that  two  methods  or  de- 
grees, so  to  speak,  of  state  publication  of  school  books 
have  been  tried  in  these  states. 

Under  the  first  method  the  state,  through  a  properly 
constituted  commission,  selects  and  employs  the  author 
or  editor,  usually  someone  of  local  importance,  to  write 


a  book  to  order.  It  is  then  printed  and  bound  at  the 
state  printing  establishment  and  afterward  sold  to  pupils 
at  cost  price  or  furnished  to  them  free  by  the  state.  The 
early  California  books  and  the  Kansas  books  (Primer, 
History  of  Kansas  and  Selections)  were  made  in  this  way. 

Under  the  second  method  the  plates  of  a  book  belonging 
to  an  individual  or  publishing  house  are  rented  and  the 
book  is  printed  and  bound  at  the  state  printing  establish- 
ment. Most  of  the  books  used  in  California  are  now  made 
in  this  way.  Some  publishers  refuse  to  rent  plates. 

To  the  experience  of  California,  Georgia,  and  Kansas 
there  may  be  added  certain  general  considerations  con- 
cerning the  cost  of  books  when  manufactured  in  large 
quantities  in  a  well  equipped  plant. 

The  uninitiated  do  not  realize  the  great  difference  per 
book  in  the  manufacturing  cost  when  books  are  made  in 
large  quantities  in  well  equipped  printing  and  binding 
plants.  The  initial  cost  for  editorial  work,  printing  plant, 
type-setting,  and  plates  is  heavy,  and  practically  the 
same  whether  few  or  many  books  are  made.  The  saving 
comes  in  spreading  out  this  initial  expense  over  a  large 
number  of  copies  printed  and  bound  in  large  orders.  This 
is  just  what  the  publisher  does  when  he  has  a  book  that  is 
widely  used  in  different  parts  of  the  country.  He  prints 
many  times  the  total  number  required  for  a  single  state, 
thereby  making  a  great  saving  in  the  cost  of  stock,  print- 
ing and  binding  over  the  best  that  a  state  can  do.  As  a 
concrete  illustration  we  may  cite  the  fact  that  a  certain 
publisher  recently  used  366  tons  of  paper  in  printing  one 
order  for  400,000  copies  of  two  textbooks,  thereby  effect- 
ing a  saving  of  about  7.3  per  cent,  of  the  total  cost  over 
what  it  would  have  cost  to  print  these  books  in  different 
successive  orders  of  20,000  copies  each.  The  difference 
between  the  manufacturing  cost  in  small  quantities  and  in 

30 


large  quantities  sometimes  constitutes  the  whole  of  the 
publisher's  profit. 

Moreover,  work  can  be  done  better  and  more  cheaply 
in  well  equipped  plants.  It  is  an  easy  matter  for  a  state 
to  spend  $200,000  on  a  printing  plant  to  supply  books 
that  would  cost  not  more  than  that  amount  annually  in 
the  open  market,  but  it  is  very  expensive  to  do  so.  Econ- 
omy in  production  consists  in  having  the  best  machinery 
and  using  it  to  the  limit.  If  a  state  printing  establishment 
is  to  do  satisfactory  work  it  must  have  this  machinery, 
but  it  cannot  keep  it  busy,  hence  there  is  a  loss.  The  large 
appropriations  asked  for  by  state  printing  offices  are 
usually  needed  to  keep  them  up  to  date,  but  they  are 
expensive  to  the  state.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  most 
publishing  houses  do  not  print  and  bind  their  own  books. 
So  far  as  the  amount  of  their  business  is  concerned,  many 
of  these  publishing  houses  are  in  about  the  same  position 
as  the  average  state,  and  the  fact  that  they  find  it  more 
profitable  to  buy  their  printing  in  the  open  market  from 
well-equipped  plants  than  to  maintain  their  own  printing 
plant  for  the  relatively  small  amount  of  business  that  they 
do  is  the  strongest  kind  of  evidence  that  the  state  cannot 
save  money  by  printing  its  own  textbooks.  Only  a  few 
of  the  very  large  publishers  who  have  business  many  times 
that  of  any  one  state  have  found  it  profitable  to  conduct 
their  own  printing  plants. 

SERVICE 

Turning  now  to  the  question  of  service,  what  do  we  find 
under  the  plan  of  publication  by  the  state? 

1.  The  books  produced  are  inferior  mechanically.  It  is 
scarcely  to  be  expected  that  as  good  material  results  would 
be  obtained  by  a  state  printer  who  holds  his  position  by 
political  appointment  or  by  election  as  would  be  obtained 

31 


by  publishing  houses  working  in  strong  competition  and 
with  a  professional  and  business  ambition  to  produce  the 
best  possible  results  at  the  lowest  cost.  The  facts  clearly 
bear  out  the  expectation.  Even  in  Ontario,  where  from 
the  point  of  view  of  economy  the  plan  seems  to  work  best, 
the  books  used  are  patently  inferior.  In  California  there 
has  always  been  complaint  on  this  score;  often  it  has 
been  serious.  In  the  words  of  State  Printer  Young  (Re- 
port 1886-1888,  p.  13),  "the  volumes  fell  apart  after 
very  little  use,  and  the  complaint  against  them  was  uni- 
versal." An  interesting  illustration  is  found  in  the  re- 
cent remark  of  a  prominent  educator  of  California  to  a 
representative  of  a  publishing  company,  "Your  Geog- 
raphies are  the  best  in  the  world,  but  why  do  you  bind 
them  so  poorly?"  He  had  forgotten  for  the  moment  that 
the  Geographies  used  in  California  are  printed  from  the 
publisher's  plates  and  bound  under  the  direction  of  the 
State  Printer.  In  the  investigation  of  this  subject  by  the 
Georgia  Commission  in  1914  it  was  clearly  brought  out 
that  textbooks  used  under  the  plan  of  state  publication 
are  much  inferior  to  those  provided  under  the  other  plan. 
The  mechanical  make-up  of  the  three  books  manufactured 
by  Kansas  is  not  worthy  of  the  great  modern  Sunflower 
State.  It  belongs  to  the  period  of  the  ox-team  and  the 
sod  house.  The  marked  inferiority  of  paper,  printing 
and  binding  of  books  published  by  the  state  when  com- 
pared with  those  made  under  the  competitive  plan  is  evi- 
dent not  only  to  the  expert,  but  to  the  casual  observer 
as  well,  and  actual  comparison  is  all  that  is  necessary  to 
convince  the  most  skeptical. 

2.  More  often  than  otherwise  the  books  are  inferior  in 
content  also.  In  California  the  first  books  made  by  the 
state  were  soon  thrown  away  because  they  were  so  un- 
satisfactory in  content.  In  Kansas — it  is  too  soon  to  say 

32 


with  certainty  what  will  ultimately  happen,  but  if  edi- 
torial remarks  in  the  Wichita  Beacon  for  January  23, 
1915,  represent  the  feeling  of  the  thoughtful  people  of 
the  state,  it  would  be  safe  to  hazard  a  guess. 

THE  LITTLE  KANSAN'S  PRIMER 

Sometime  ago  the  Beacon  wrote  an  analysis  of  the  iirst 
textbook  printed  under  state  publication — that  of  the  History 
of  Kansas.  The  book  fell  so  far  short  of  the  educational 
standard  which  Kansas  ought  to  set  that  it  attracted  much 
unfavorable  comment,  but  it  is  in  our  schools  just  the  same. 

Now  comes  the  Kansas  Primer.  The  title  of  it  is  "The 
Little  Kansans  Primer."  The  author  or  the  printer  was  un- 
certain whether  to  put  the  apostrophe  after  the  "n"  or  after 
the  "s,"  so  left  it  out  altogether. 

The  illustrations  are  fairly  good.  In  this  respect  it  is  a 
decided  improvement  over  the  Kansas  history.  This  is  the 
only  kind  word  that  can  be  said  about  the  book. 

If  you  don't  believe  it,  get  a  copy  of  the  book  and  examine 
it  for  yourself. 

The  most  convincing  part  of  the  Beacon's  argument 
is  found  in  following  the  suggestion  to  examine  the  books 
for  yourself. 

In  cases  where  authorship  or  editorship  is  limited  to 
the  state  in  which  the  plan  is  being  used,  inferiority  is 
almost  sure  to  result  because  no  state  has  a  monopoly 
of  the  best  authors  in  all  subjects,  and  if  it  should  have 
one  such  author,  he  is  not  likely  to  be  willing  to  limit  the 
use  of  his  books  to  one  state.  Are  not  the  children  entitled 
to  the  use  of  the  best  book  regardless  of  the  author's 
residence? 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  if  the  teachers  of  Kansas  were 
free  to  choose  among  all  the  books  now  available,  not  one 
of  the  three  made  by  the  state  would,  in  its  present  form, 
find  a  place  on  the  list.  If  a  publisher  were  to  put  out 
such  books  under  existing  conditions  of  competition,  they 


would  certainly  be  a  total  loss  to  him.  But  the  sovereign 
State  of  Kansas,  under  the  present  law,  permits  no  com- 
petition; it  creates  a  monopoly  in  these  made-to-order 
books,  and  thrusts  them  upon  the  schools  of  the  state 
regardless  of  the  opinion  and  wishes  of  its  own  teachers 
and  in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  in  any  competent  and 
unprejudiced  court  these  books  would  be  judged  inferior 
both  mechanically  and  pedagogically. 

It  is  particularly  noteworthy  that  even  California  has 
found  it  necessary  to  fall  back  upon  the  resources  of  pub- 
lishers in  order  to  secure  books  that  are  satisfactory  in 
content.  The  first  books,  made  to  order  by  local  authors, 
were  extremely  unsatisfactory,  as  is  shown  by  the  report 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  State  Textbook  Commission, 
quoted  on  page  43.  Revised  editions  of  these  books 
"failed  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  schools."  For  sev- 
eral years  nearly  all  the  books  used  in  California  have  been 
printed  from  plates  rented  from  publishers.  The  state 
has  been  unable  to  develop  an  acceptable  series  of  texts. 

3.  There  is  likely  to  be  serious  delay  in  delivery  of 
books.  In  California  there  has  been  much  complaint  on 
this  score.  In  the  editorial  on  the  California  Textbook 
System  previously  quoted,  the  writer  says  on  this  point: 


Supplementary  to  the  question  of  exchange  lies  a  question 
of  administration  that  has  worried  every  school  official  in 
California.  We  refer  to  the  impossibility,  under  our  present 
system,  of  getting  enough  books  the  first  week  of  school  to 
supply  all  the  children.  Practically  every  teacher,  principal 
and  superintendent  in  California  will  bear  eloquent  testimony 
that  never  have  the  children  under  his  charge  been  able  to 
secure  all  the  necessary  books  the  first  week  of  school.  At 
such  times  the  newspapers  all  over  the  State  are  voicing  the 
complaints  of  superintendents.  The  reason  for  this  state  of 
affairs  is  not  far  to  seek.  Usually  the  State  Printing  Office 
is  partly  at  fault;  but  even  when  its  skirts  are  clean,  the 
trouble  persists,  owing  to  the  unwillingness  of  local  dealers  to 
order  freely  for  school  opening.  With  cash  accompanying  all 

34 


orders  for  State  books,  with  no  return  privileges,  and  with 
only  a  small  margin  of  profit,  the  dealers  dare  not  take  the 
chance  of  being  "stuck."  Hence  they  invariably  order  light 
and  continue  to  reorder  for  two  or  three  months.  Experience 
has  shown  the  dealers  that  this  is  the  only  safe  way.  Mean- 
while the  schools  suffer.  Many  parents  who  naturally  expect 
to  buy  books  for  their  children  at  the  time  of  school  opening 
object  strenuously  later  on.  Local  adoptions  (with  or  without 
free  texts)  would  enable  every  school  in  California  to  be  fully 
equipped  the  first  week.  How  so?  Whenever  a  book  is  dis- 
placed under  local  adoptions,  the  publishers  of  the  new  book 
take  from  the  dealers  at  dollar  for  dollar  all  the  stock  on 
hand. 

Thus  protected  against  loss,  dealers  have  no  hesitancy  to 
order  freely  on  the  estimate  which  the  superintendent  or 
principal  is  always  glad  to  furnish.  In  free-text  territory  the 
problem  of  securing  books  on  time  solves  itself.  To  encourage 
boards  to  order  adequately  for  prospective  needs,  publishers 
grant  a  return  privilege  on  the  books  up  to  20  per  cent,  of  the 
original  order. 


To  this  statement  may  be  added  the  explanation  that 
when  a  publisher  is  under  a  $50,000  bond  to  supply  books 
by  a  fixed  date,  as  he  usually  is  in  the  case  of  a  large 
adoption,  there  is  not  likely  to  be  delay  in  delivery. 

4.  When  a  book  has  been  made  by  the  state,  it  is  par- 
ticularly difficult  to  effect  a  change  to  another,  even  though 
that  other  be  much  better.  When  the  state  has  incurred 
the  initial  cost  of  preparing  and  manufacturing  a  new 
series,  it  is  but  natural  that  the  supporters  of  that  series 
should  desire  to  use  it  as  long  as  possible.  If  it  were 
manufactured  by  a  publishing  house,  the  state  would  be 
free  to  change  at  any  time  that  it  seemed  desirable  to 
do  so. 

The  importance  of  occasional  changes  in  textbooks  is 
often  not  appreciated  by  parents  and  taxpayers.  If  books 
must  be  bought  for  the  children,  the  introduction  of  a 
new  text  may  mean  to  the  parent  simply  the  additional 
expense  of  that  book  when,  from  his  point  of  view,  an  old 
book  in  the  house  would  do  just  as  well.  He  does  not 

35 


always  realize  that  there  are  improvements  in  school  books 
as  there  are  in  other  things.  If  he  is  a  progressive  farmer 
or  manufacturer  he  knows  the  advantage  of  up-to-date 
machinery;  if  a  merchant,  he  knows  the  value  of  modern 
methods  of  serving  his  customers;  if  an  automobilist,  he 
wants  the  latest  machine.  It  does  not  always  occur  to 
him,  however,  that  he  may  be  as  ignorant  of  the  best 
things  for  the  school  as  the  teacher  is  of  the  newest  things 
in  his  business,  and  that  teachers  and  pupils  want  the 
best  books  for  the  same  reasons  that  he  wants  the  most 
modern  and  effective  appliances. 

5.  State  publication  sometimes  brings  the  disadvantage 
of  being  limited  to  a  single  text.  This  limitation  to  one 
text  in  one  subject  is  the  logical  position  to  take  under  the 
plan  of  state  manufacture  for  the  sake  of  the  lowest  pos- 
sible cost,  but  it  limits  tremendously  the  efficiency  of  school 
books  as  educational  tools,  for  in  no  state  is  a  single 
book  likely  to  be  the  best  for  all  the  conditions  existing 
in  that  state,  and  the  use  of  only  one  book  is  often  dead- 
ening in  its  effect  upon  pupils.  In  a  recommendation  to 
the  legislature  made  by  State  Superintendent  Ross,  of 
Kansas,  he  says: 

An  actual  incident  will  illustrate  the  true  situation  graph- 
ically. The  Supreme  Court  decision  in  the  supplementary 
book  case  was  handed  down  on  a  Saturday.  The  following 
Monday  a  little  10-year-old  Topeka  girl  went  home  from 
school,  and  in  her  childish  simplicity  (thinking  that  court  de- 
cisions should  be  rendered  on  what  the  law  ought  to  be,  in- 
stead of  what  it  is),  said  to  her  father  at  the  dinner  table: 
"Papa,  what  do  you  suppose  the  Supreme  Court  has  done?" 
Her  father  said:  "Why,  I  don't  know — what  has  it  done?" 
"Well,  it  has  just  spoiled  school,"  the  little  girl  replied.  Then 
she  explained  that  her  class  had  finished  their  reader  and 
were  in  the  midst  of  one  of  a  very  interesting  series  of  little 
"classics"  on  the  industries,  this  one  being  on  the  formation, 
production  and  uses  of  coal,  when  they  had  been  compelled  to 
quit  because  the  Supreme  Court  had  said  they  could  not, 
under  the  law,  use  any  books  in  their  reading  class  except  the 

36 


state-adopted   reader." — Advance  Sheets  from  Biennial  Re- 
port, Dec.,  1914. 

The  alternative,  namely,  the  adoption  of  supplemen- 
tary texts,  is  practical  acknowledgment  of  the  failure  of 
the  one-book  plan.  Moreover,  if  supplementary  texts  are 
needed — and  the  best  opinion  and  practice  indicate  that 
they  are — it  is  pertinent  to  inquire  why,  if  it  is  wise  for 
the  state  to  publish  the  basal  text  in  a  subject,  it  would 
not  be  equally  wise  for  it  to  publish  the  supplementary 
texts  also. 

GENERAL  CONSEQUENCES 

1.  At  the  outset  we  meet  the  general  objection  that 
always  prevails  against  state  participation  in  business  en- 
terprises. The  function  of  the  state,  particularly  as  it 
is  regarded  in  a  democratic  country,  is  to  carry  on  those 
affairs  of  the  people  that  cannot  be  trusted  to  private 
effort.  To  do  that  well  is  quite  enough,  and  nothing  else 
should  be  included  in  its  duties. 

This  objection  is  founded  in  part  on  the  instinctive  de- 
sire of  the  American  people  to  be  governed  as  little  as 
possible,  in  part  on  their  antipathy  to  a  monopoly  even 
though  it  be  a  government  monopoly,  and  in  part  on  the 
belief,  based  on  evidence,  that  government  ownership  is 
often  a  failure  if  all  the  facts  be  taken  into  consideration. 
President  A.  T.  Hadley,  of  Yale  University,  says  in  his 
treatise  on  Economics: 

"The  advantages  of  intervention  on  the  part  of  a  govern- 
ment are  visible  and  tangible  facts;  the  evil  that  results  from 
such  intervention  is  much  more  indirect  and  can  only  be 
appreciated  after  close  and  intensive  study." 

In  his  book  entitled  Where  and  Why  Public  Ownership 
Has  Failed,  Mr.  Yves  Guyot,  the  well-known  French  econ- 

37 


omist,  points  out  in  detail  that  even  in  Europe,  where  the 
people  are  much  more  submissive  to  government  control, 
and  public  ownership  has  a  much  better  chance  of  success 
than  in  the  United  States,  it  has  not  been  nearly  so  suc- 
cessful as  its  advocates  would  have  the  world  believe.  He 
summarizes  the  "results  of  experience"  as  follows: 

Against  a  wider  extension  of  public  economic  responsibili- 
ties nothing  but  experience  stands  in  the  way.  But  it  con- 
demns unreservedly  any  such  extension.  From  the  point  of 
view  both  of  the  quality  and  the  cost  of  service,  state  and 
municipal  ownership  show  incontestible  inferiority  to  private 
enterprise  (p.  398). 

Of  course,  no  one  condemns  the  postal  service  or  any 
other  service  for  the  government  management  of  which 
there  is  equally  good  reason.  Where  conditions  are  such 
that  satisfactory  service  requires  unified,  permanent  con- 
trol, as  in  the  case  of  the  postal  service,  people  are  willing 
to  forego  the  advantages  that  free  competition  might 
bring.  But  where  permanent,  monopolistic  control  is  not 
necessary  or  even  desirable,  where  occasional  change  is 
advantageous,  as  in  the  case  of  school  books,  where  free 
competition  can  be  relied  upon  to  produce  a  better  prod- 
uct than  monopoly,  even  though  it  be  a  government  mo- 
nopoly, the  spirit  of  democracy  justly  resents  state  in- 
terference. 

2.  The  plan  of  state  manufacture  leaves  an  open  road 
to  inefficiency  and  graft.  The  California  Senate  Daily 
Journal  for  January  29,  1913,  contains  the  following 
statement  from  the  committee  appointed  to  investigate  the 
school  book  situation  in  that  state: 


For  many  years  prior  to  and  at  the  time  this  committee 
entered  upon  the  discharge  of  its  duties,  under  the  admin- 
istration of  William  W.  Shannon,  Superintendent  of  State 
Printing,  the  cost  of  textbooks,  as  charged  by  the  State  Print- 

38 


ing  Office  and  levied  against  the  school  children  of  this  State, 
was  grossly  excessive  and  extortionate. 

This  situation  was  due  to  the  manner  in  which  the  business 
of  the  State  Printing  Office  was  being  and  had  for  years  been 
conducted,  which  was  as  deplorable  as  it  was  astounding,  and 
which  tolerated  a  system  reeking  with  fraud  and  dishonesty. 

The  entire  business  of  supplying  materials  used  in  the 
publication  of  state  textbooks  was,  with  the  active  connivance 
of  the  Superintendent  of  State  Printing,  monopolized  by  four 
favored  firms,  which  thereby  profited  to  the  extent  of  many 
thousands  of  dollars  extorted  from  the  parents  and  guardians 
of  the  school  children. 

The  methods  pursued  in  conducting  the  internal  affairs  of 
the  State  Printing  Office  were  as  incomprehensible  as  they 
were  ineffective  from  the  standpoint  of  ordinary  business  effi- 
ciency and  economy.  No  adequate  system  of  bookkeeping 
was  followed;  no  proper  check  was  kept  for  the  purpose  of 
determining  whether  the  materials  paid  for  were  in  fact  fur- 
nished, or  were  of  the  character  or  quality  ordered,  or  con- 
formed to  the  provisions  of  the  contracts,  or  from  which  the 
exact  quantity  of  material  that  went  into  any  particular  job 
could  be  determined,  or  what  charge  should  be  made  against 
any  particular  book;  no  accounts  were  kept  showing  the  cost 
of  each  particular  textbook;  certain  employees  were  carried 
on  the  pay-roll  of  the  State  Printing  Office  not  because  any 
necessity  existed  for  the  services  to  be  rendered  by  them,  but 
to  satisfy  political  and  ante-election  obligations  and  promises ; 
an  excessive  amount  of  overhead  charges  and  administrative 
expenses  of  the  whole  department  was  charged  against  the 
publication  of  school  textbooks;  an  excessive  and  exorbitant 
cost  constantly  resulted  from  the  excessive  prices  paid  for 
the  materials  which  entered  into  the  printing  and  publication 
of  these  books,  and  in  addition  there  was  a  charge  for  labor 
which  should  have  been  charged  against  other  work;  an  un- 
lawful profit  of  twenty  per  cent,  was  arbitrarily  placed  upon 
every  textbook  printed,  and  last  but  not  least,  the  vast  sums 
collected  from  the  school  children  and  their  parents  in  pay- 
ment for  the  books  were  deposited  to  the  credit  of  the  State 
Textbook  Fund,  only  to  be  withdrawn  immediately  to  satisfy 
the  greedy  demands  of  the  supply  contractors  who  had 
exercised  an  effective  control  over  the  State  Printing  Office 
for  many  years. 

But,  it  may  be  said,  if  graft  and  inefficiency  in  the  of- 
fices of  state  printer  and  state  superintendent  were  elim- 
inated, could  not  the  state  provide  books  more  cheaply 

39 


than  they  are  provided  through  private  competition  ?  The 
latter  experience  of  California  does  not  appear  to  sanction 
this  conclusion.  Moreover,  in  the  present  state  of  Amer- 
ican industrial  efficiency  and  social  and  political  ethics, 
does  not  the  supposition  involve  too  great  a  hazard? 

3.  Even  in  cases  where  there  is  no  attempt  at  graft  in 
high  places,  and  where  there  is  an  honest  desire  for  effi- 
ciency,  school  interests   are  likely  to   suffer  bcause  the 
book  business  is  sure  sooner  or  later  to  become  dependent 
upon  political  ambition  or  caprice  or  emergency.     The 
campaign  cry  for  cheaper  school  books  is  one  that  reaches 
many  homes,  as  events  in  Ontario,  California,  and  Kansas 
show.     To  lessen  the  cost  of  books — whether  actually  or 
only  apparently,  it  does  not  matter — is  to  store  up  polit- 
ical capital.     Political  debts  must  be  paid,  some  of  them 
by  appointments,  and  state  departments  offer  a  fine  field 
for  patronage.    There  come  political  crises  when  a  change 
of  books  or  of  management  must  be  made  or  must  not  be 
made  regardless  of  whether  it  should  be  made  or  not. 

Ignorant  meddlers  cannot  always  be  ignored.  For  ex- 
ample, in  a  recent  state-adoption  campaign  a  politician 
of  some  note,  who  had  publicly  charged  unjust  dealings 
in  the  book  business,  was  called  before  the  State  Board 
to  give  evidence.  He  was  sure  there  was  something  wrong, 
but  on  the  witness  stand  he  was  utterly  unable  to  sub- 
stantiate, or  even  to  make,  any  definite  charge.  There  are 
many  of  his  kind,  ignorant  and  ready  to  make  trouble. 

It  is  an  open  secret  that  our  great  state  universities 
suffer  at  times  through  the  enthusiastic  efforts  of  well- 
meaning  but  mistaken  politicians.  Under  a  system  of  state 
manufacture  of  textbooks,  the  common  schools  are  in 
even  greater  danger. 

4.  The  professional  spirit  of  teachers  is  violated.     How 
can  it  be  otherwise  when  state  publication  has  been  under- 

40 


taken  and  is  continued  in  the  face  of  the  almost  universal 
opposition  of  teachers?  They  feel  that  by  depriving  them 
of  an  opportunity  to  secure  the  best  books,  state  publi- 
cation imposes  upon  them  and  their  work  an  unnecessary 
handicap.  It  is  surprising  that  the  supporters  of  state 
publication  have  not  recognized  the  injury,  not  to  say  the 
insult,  done  to  the  members  of  the  teaching  profession  by 
imposing  upon  them  school  books  which  in  any  professional 
court  would  be  judged  inferior  in  quality.  If  these  teach- 
ers are  at  all  worthy  of  the  responsible  positions  that  they 
occupy  as  leaders  of  the  rising  generation,  their  indi- 
vidual and  professional  protest  against  the  products  and 
policy  of  state  publication  should  certainly  be  heard  and 
heeded. 

Nor  is  there  any  doubt  about  the  existence  of  such  opin- 
ion. In  1882,  at  a  Convention  of  the  County  Superin- 
tendents of  California,  a  report  on  the  feasibility  of  state 
publication  was  made,  and  resolutions  were  passed  the  con- 
clusion of  which  was  that 

In  consideration,  therefore,  of  all  the  above  facts,  we  are 
constrained  to  advise  against  the  state  undertaking  to  print, 
publish,  or  "provide"  any  of  the  school  textbooks. 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  California  State  Teachers' 
Association,  held  in  December,  1883,  a  full  report  on  the 
subject  was  made  and  the  following  prophetic  resolution 
adopted : 

Resolved,  that  in  the  opinion  of  this  association,  the  pub- 
lication of  school  textbooks  by  the  state  is  inexpedient  and 
impracticable,  and  will  if  attempted  result  in  great  pecuniary 
loss  to  the  state  and  expensive  and  unsatisfactory  books  to 
our  schools. 

In  the  (California)  Overland  Monthly  for  July,  1888, 
ex-State  Superintendent  F.  M.  Campbell  wrote: 

41 


In  conclusion,  let  me  say  that  I  am  opposed  to  the  state 
going  into  the  business  of  manufacturing  furniture,  clothing, 
boots  and  shoes,  cigars  or  books.  That  all  these  things  could 
be  bought  a  bit  cheaper  (if  it  were  true)  would  not  be  an 
argument  with  me. 


The  opinion  of  State  Superintendent  Ira  G.  Hoitt, 
written  in  December,  1890,  has  already  been  quoted.  See 
page  6. 

In  his  report,  dated  December  15,  1892,  J.  W.  Ander- 
son, Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  says: 

The  difficulty  incident  to  securing  the  services  of  persons 
fully  competent  to  prepare  school  textbooks  can  scarcely  be 
imagined  except  by  those  who  have  had  experience  in  such 
work.  The  making  of  school  textbooks  has  been  reduced  to 
a  science,  and  authors  fully  competent  to  execute  the  work 
as  it  should  be  done  can  and  do  secure  greater  compensation 
than  it  is  possible  for  the  State  Board  of  Education  to  give; 
and,  inasmuch  as  they  could  not  do  the  work  themselves,  they 
were  under  the  necessity  of  assigning  it  to  such  parties  as  it 
was  possible  for  them  to  secure,  and  whom  they  considered 
best  capable  of  properly  discharging  the  duties. 

Both  the  readers  and  spellers  are  so  defective  in  what  is 
needed  by  the  schools  as  to  require  entirely  new  publication 
instead  of  revision.  The  advanced  arithmetic  also  needs  re- 
vision, in  order  to  suit  it  to  the  wants  of  the  schools.  The 
grammar  meets  with  more  serious  complaint  than  any  other 
books  published  by  the  state  except  the  readers  and  the  his- 
tory, and  the  interests  of  our  schools  imperatively  demand  its 
revision.  Much  complaint  was  heard  relative  to  the  charac- 
ter of  the  history  of  the  United  States;  it  is  not  at  all 
suited  to  the  pupils  in  the  classes  where  it  is  required  to  be 
used.  The  arrangement  of  the  matter  is  not  regarded  as 
good,  and  the  style  of  treating  the  various  topics  is  abstruse 
to  such  a  degree  as  to  render  it  very  difficult  to  be  compre- 
hended by  the  pupils. 


In  an  Historical  Review  of  State  Publication  of  Text- 
books, prepared  by  Mr.  Robert  Furlong,  Secretary  of 
the  State  Textbook  Commission  and  printed  in  the  Report 
of  the  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  dated  Sep- 
tember 14,  1906,  the  writer  says: 


The  teaching  force  of  the  state  murmured  its  dissatisfac- 
tion with  the  contents  of  the  prescribed  books.  Crudities,  mis- 
statements  of  facts,  and  a  general  want  of  attractiveness  in 
the  texts  made  them  difficult  for  teachers  and  uninteresting 
to  pupils.  Evidences  of  a  lack  of  skill  in  textbook-making 
appeared  in  every  book  that  so  far  had  been  prepared  under 
the  system.  Quality  had  not  been  considered  a  factor,  for 
most  of  the  texts  were  neither  pedagogical  nor  modern.  Quan- 
tity, at  first  restricted,  was  later  enlarged  when  the  number 
and  kinds  of  books  were  increased,  which  fact  added  mate- 
rially to  the  cost  for  school  patrons.  This  latter  result  was 
especially  disappointing  to  the  promoters  of  state  publication 
who  had  promised  great  reductions  in  cost  of  books.  Upon 
the  whole,  the  method  of  providing  children's  schoolbooks 
cheaply,  to  which  the  people  had  given  emphatic  approval  by 
engrafting  it  on  the  constitution  of  the  state,  had  in  practice 
proved  quite  unsatisfactory. 

While  the  revised  books  were  an  improvement  on  those 
that  had  preceded  them  in  use,  they  failed  to  satisfy  the  re- 
quirements of  the  schools.  Dissatisfaction  was  heard  from 
every  classroom.  So  general  did  fault-finding  become  that  it 
found  open  expression  in  resolutions  adopted  at  nearly  every 
institute  of  teachers  and  at  every  convention  of  superintend- 
ents held  in  the  state.  It  was  repeatedly  shown  by  competent 
judges  that  in  a  comparison  with  texts  used  in  several  other 
states,  the  California  books  suffered.  They  were  found  to  be 
inferior  in  both  plan  and  content,  while  the  mechanical  work 
on  them  reflected  no  credit  on  the  book-maker's  art. 

So  far  the  texts  had  been  compiled  by  California  writers 
who,  as  authors,  were  previously  unknown.  These  writers 
employed  for  the  work  were  doubtless  "well  qualified  persons," 
since  the  statute  directed  that  they  should  be  so,  but  evidently 
their  high  qualifications  extended  in  other  directions  than  in 
the  writing  of  textbooks  adapted  to  California  schools.  The 
finished  products  of  their  skill  were  not  of  the  "first  order  of 
excellence,"  which  standard  the  state  had  established  for  its 
schoolbooks  in  the  act  provided  for  their  preparation.  Teach- 
ers demanded  textbooks  in  keeping  with  the  state's  pro- 
gressive school  system.  They  found  their  work  in  the  class- 
room hampered  because  of  the  inferior  texts  they  were 
compelled  by  law  to  use.  The  effects  of  this  condition  in  the 
schools,  serious  as  they  were,  would  doubtless  have  been  even 
more  disastrous  had  it  not  been  for  a  saving  provision  in  the 
law  permitting  the  use  of  other  books  to  supplement  the  state 
texts.  Boards  of  education  had  authority  to  adopt  lists  of 
books  for  supplementary  purposes.  The  names  of  the  best 
elementary  textbooks  published  in  the  United  States  soon 
appeared  in  school  manuals,  associated  with  the  prescribed 

43 


state  publications.  It  was  permissible  under  the  law  to  pur- 
chase supplemental  books  with  certain  funds  of  a  district  or 
city.  When  purchased  they  belonged  to  the  school  library, 
to  be  used  for  class-room  purposes.  Pupils  were  required  to 
buy  only  the  state  book  in  any  study,  as  the  supplementary 
books,  enough  for  class  use,  were  furnished  at  expense  of  a 
district.  In  a  measure,  this  method  of  purchase  meant  free 
textbooks,  since  the  supplementary  books  furnished  schools 
often  outnumbered  the  state  books  owned  by  the  pupils. 

In  1915,  when  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  pro- 
viding for  the  publication  of  high  school  textbooks  was 
before  the  California  Legislature,  a  committee  appointed 
by  the  California  Council  of  Education  to  investigate  the 
attitude  of  the  school  people  of  the  state  regarding  the 
proposed  amendment  reported  that  at  least  one  hundred 
and  fifty  letters  had  been  written  by  high  school  principals 
to  legislators,  and  they  were  unanimous  in  their  opinion 
against  the  amendment,  which  was  afterward  defeated. 

In  a  bulletin  issued  in  July,  1915,  the  present  State 
Superintendent  of  California,  Edward  Hyatt,  says,  con- 
cerning the  criticisms  of  the  first  twenty  years  of  state 
publication  : 

Those  in  charge  of  state  publication  became  very  uncom- 
fortable over  the  general  clamor.  They  revised  books  and 
added  to  them  in  vain,  and  continually  they  looked  for  some 
way  to  improve  the  matter,  to  stop  the  howls.  Undoubt- 
edly, if  it  had  not  been  planted  deep  in  the  Constitution 
itself,  state  publication  would  have  gone  by  the  board  during 
this  period. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  National  Educational  Association 
at  San  Francisco  in  August,  1915,  one  session  was  de- 
voted to  a  consideration  of  textbooks.  The  discussion,  in 
which  California  educators  took  a  prominent  part,  was  a 
severe  arraignment  of  the  state  publication  system.  Al- 
though many  California  teachers  were  present,  not  a  voice 
was  raised  in  its  defence.  The  last  speaker,  Dr.  P.  P. 
Claxton,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  was 

44 


unsparing  in  his  criticism  of  any  plan  that  limits  the 
choice  of  textbooks  to  the  authors  of  a  single  state  and 
that  emphasizes  financial  saving  at  the  expense  of  educa- 
tional efficiency.  The  enthusiastic  response  from  his  listen- 
ers left  no  doubt  as  to  their  approval  of  his  position. 

In  the  Journal  of  Education  for  January  1,  1914,  Mr. 
D.  C.  McCray  reports  the  sentiment  of  the  Kansas  State 
Teachers'  Association  as  follows : 

"We  build  schoolhouses,  equip  them  with  every  modern 
convenience,  including  seats,  desks  and  furnishings.  These  we 
buy  in  the  open  market  because  the  open  market  is  bigger 
and  wider  than  Kansas.  We  do  this  with  taxes  levied  on  the 
property  in  the  school  district.  Why  should  we  not  go  into 
the  open  market  and  buy  the  best  schoolbooks  and  pay  for 
them  with  taxes  levied  just  as  we  pay  for  school  furniture, 
and  make  them  free  to  every  child  in  the  state?  If  Kansas 
authors  and  Kansas  printing  offices  can  supply  the  best  books 
at  the  lowest  prices,  buy  them.  But  let  Kansas  compete  with 
the  open  market.  The  education  of  our  children — the  school- 
books  that  lay  the  foundation  of  their  lives — is  too  sacred  a 
thing  to  be  discarded  for  'sentiment'  or  for  'cheapness.'  The 
best  school  texts  are  none  too  good  for  Kansas." 

This  sentiment  was  expressed  by  hundreds  of  teachers  who 
had  hoped  that  in  getting  away  from  the  evils  complained  of 
in  the  sixteen  years  of  state  uniformity  the  legislature  would 
consider  the  better  way— district  ownership,  free  textbooks 
and  the  open  market  to  select  from.  But  this  legislature, 
like  others  that  came  from  the  farms  on  the  wave  of  a  poli- 
tical upheaval,  was  pledged  in  the  platform  to  pass  a  law 
providing  for  the  state  publication  of  schoolbooks.  Edu- 
cators, teachers,  and  men  high  in  educational  councils  came 
here  to  reason  with  the  members  and  to  beg  of  them  to  wait 
two  years  and  in  the  meantime  investigate  the  California 
system.  But  these  appeals  were  in  vain,  state  publication 
was  in  the  platform  and  the  platform  was  the  will  of  the 
people— expressed  by  less  than  400  men  constituting  the  party 
council  and  all  candidates  for  office.  Urging  the  party  coun- 
cil to  heed  the  will  of  the  people  were  the  experts,  agitators 
and  hopeful  authors,  with  their  respective  axes  to  grind. 

Private  information  concerning  opinion  in  California 
shows  that  leading  educators  there  regard  the  state  pub- 
lication scheme  as  a  sort  of  octopus  which,  although  it  is 

45 


dragging  educational  efficiency  down  into  the  depths  of 
political  necessity,  nevertheless,  survives  because  of  the 
patronage  it  affords.  It  maintains  its  hold  in  the  face  of 
the  practically  universal  opposition  of  the  educational 
public — the  extra-political  educational  public — and  since 
it  cannot  be  killed,  the  practical  problem  is  to  render  it  as 
harmless  as  possible.  A  similar  sentiment  prevails  in  Kan- 
sas, but  many  are  now  hoping  that  under  the  law  of  1915 
adoption  from  the  publishers'  lists  will  take  the  place  of 
local  authorship  and  state  manufacture,  and  that  the  state 
may  be  saved  both  the  expense  and  the  humiliation  that 
the  latter  have  been  found  to  bring. 

Is  it  not  passing  strange  that  in  the  face  of  this  uni- 
versal professional  attitude  on  the  part  of  teachers,  poli- 
ticians persist  in  pushing  plans  for  state  publication? 
And  does  it  not  also  provide  just  ground  for  criticism 
of  the  practical  efficiency  of  our  American  form  of  gov- 
ernment that  professional  opinion  is  so  lightly  swept  aside 
in  a  matter  of  so  great  national  importance?  It  may  soon 
become  necessary  for  American  teachers  to  register  at 
the  polls  their  protest  against  this  violation  of  their  pro- 
fessional rights,  rights  which  are  also  the  rights  and  the 
interests  of  the  people  and  the  state.* 

5.  Professional  authorship  and  competitive  publishing 
enterprise  are  discouraged.  If  quality  as  well  as  cost  of 
product  is  important,  authorship  and  competitive  pub- 
lishing effort  should,  on  the  other  hand,  be  encouraged 
and  stimulated  as  much  as  possible.  The  laborer  is  worthy 
of  his  hire.  If  the  financial  rewards  of  superior  author- 
ship are  reduced  below  a  certain  profitable  minimum  either 

*  In  1915  a  bill,  providing  for  state  publication  of  school  books, 
was  introduced  into  the  Alabama  Legislature  by  the  chairman  of 
the  Senate  Committee  on  Rules.  It  passed  in  the  Senate,  but  be- 
fore it  came  to  a  vote  in  the  House  the  school  people  of  the 
state  had  become  aware  of  its  significance  and  undoubtedly  their 
protests  were  a  large  factor  in  its  defeat. 

46 


by  cutting  down  royalties  or  by  the  limitation  of  sales  by 
state  lines,  the  most  competent  authors  will  not  find  it 
worth  while  to  write  school  books,  and  we  shall  be  limited 
to  the  use  of  books  prepared  by  mediocre  or  inferior  tal- 
ent. If  the  state  creates  a  monopoly  of  school  book 
making  so  as  to  destroy  a  reasonable  publisher's  profit, 
the  publishers  will  leave  the  field  and  we  shah1  be  deprived 
of  the  improvements  that  necessarily  come  through  com- 
petitive private  effort. 

Book  publishing  includes  much  more  than  merely  print- 
ing and  binding.  It  is  an  intricate  business  in  which  train- 
ing, constructive  imagination,  experience,  and  business  and 
professional  ambition  are  large  factors.  Excellence  in 
product  comes  only  through  expertness  in  the  worker, 
and  expertness  comes  only  through  years  of  training. 
To  know  educational  conditions  and  needs,  to  know  what 
has  been  done  in  the  world  of  book  making,  to  have  a 
wide  acquaintance  with  authors,  to  know  what  constitutes 
a  good  and  attractive  book,  mechanically  considered,  and 
how  to  make  it  at  reasonable  cost,  to  devise  methods  that 
represent  the  best  modern  psychology  and  pedagogy,  to 
have  the  foresight  and  constructive  genius  to  plan  a  book 
that  will  sell  well  because  it  meets  existing  needs  better 
than  any  other  book — these  are  some  of  the  problems 
that  confront  author  and  publisher.  How  successfully 
they  have  solved  them  and  how  much  they  have  contributed 
to  modern  educational  progress  is  known  only  to  those 
who  have  given  the  matter  careful  consideration. 

The  critical  public  hears  much  of  the  relatively  few 
highly  successful  books  that  are  an  educational  success 
and  that  make  money  for  author  and  publisher.  It  hears 
little  or  nothing  of  the  many  unsuccessful  books  into  which 
author  and  publisher  have  put  just  as  much  effort  and 
money,  but  which,  the  test  of  trial  shows,  lacked  some 

47 


essential  but  unknown  quality  necessary  to  make  them  a 
success.  The  publisher  does  not  advertise  his  school  book 
graveyard,  but  it  cannot  be  hidden  from  those  who  are 
interested  in  reading  the  inscriptions  on  its  tombstones. 
The  publisher  experiments  in  the  making  of  a  new  book, 
using  the  best  judgment  that  years  of  experience  and 
training  can  give  and  incidentally  spending  thousands  of 
dollars.  The  public  benefits  from  his  failures  only  a  little 
less  than  from  his  successes,  for  it  is  often  extremely  worth 
while  to  know  what  not  to  do  or  how  not  to  do  it.  If  the 
unsuccessful  books  had  been  published  by  the  state,  the 
schools  would  have  been  compelled  to  use  them  even  after 
they  had  been  found  to  be  unsatisfactory. 

Experience  shows  that  textbooks  cannot  be  made  to 
order  with  any  assurance  of  success;  they  are  an  evolu- 
tion. The  problems  in  making  them  are  altogether  too 
difficult  to  be  solved  offhand  by  the  chance  compiler  and 
printer  who  hold  their  positions  not  by  virtue  of  adequate 
training  and  professional  ambition,  but  through  some 
lucky  turn  of  the  political  wheel  of  fortune;  and  the  proper 
solution  of  these  problems  is  of  so  great  importance  to 
the  educational  welfare  of  the  American  people  that  we 
cannot  afford  to  lose  or  to  check  the  beneficent  influence 
of  competitive  publishing  effort,  which  has  undoubtedly 
been  the  greatest  factor  in  the  evolution  of  the  modern 
school  book. 

6.  State  publication  emphasizes  cost  rather  than  qual- 
ity of  education,  a  radically  wrong  view  so  long  as  the 
cost  is  not  unreasonable.  The  only  argument  urged  in 
favor  of  state  publication  is  that  it  decreases  the  expense 
for  books.  That  this  claim  is  not  well  founded  is  clearly 
shown  in  the  preceding  pages.  But  even  if  it  were  true, 
it  would  not  follow  that  we  should  not  pay  the  larger 

48 


amount  for  the  sake  of  securing  the  better  book.     Why 
not  buy  the  cheapest  clothing,  the  cheapest  food? 

The  largest  factor  in  the  making  of  a  good  school  is 
undoubtedly  the  teacher.  The  next  largest  is  undoubtedly 
the  textbook.  A  really  good  teacher  will  teach  well  from 
a  poor  book.  A  really  poor  teacher  will  not  teach  well 
from  any  book.  But  in  either  case  the  work  will  be  better 
done  if  a  good  book  is  used,  and  well  qualified  teachers  are 
not  so  numerous  in  American  schools  that  we  can  afford 
to  be  satisfied  with  any  but  the  best  books.  A  good  book 
at  least  gives  the  pupil  a  chance.  In  an  article  on  School- 
book  Legislation,  Professor  J.  W.  Jenks,  the  well-known 
economist  and  educator,  says: 

A  saving  of  even  fifty  cents  a  year  for  each  pupil,  impor- 
tant as  it  is,  is  not  of  such  vital  consequence  as  good  train- 
ing, and  this  training,  considering  the  poor  preparation  of 
many  of  our  teachers,  is  largely  dependent  on  the  text- 
books. (Good  Citizenship,  p.  229.) 

The  human,  commonsense  way  for  the  parent  to  con- 
sider this  matter  is  to  ask  himself  the  question,  "Is  this 
good  book  worth  two  cents  (or  twenty  cents)  more  to  my 
child  this  year  than  that  inferior  book?" 

Neither  is  the  cost  prohibitive.  ^Ve  spend  in  the  United 
States  annually  for 

Spirituous  liquors about  $579,000,000,  an  average  of  $5.79  per  person 

Boots  and  shoes 

Tobacco  

Bread  and  bakeries... 

Moving  pictures 

Automobiles   

Agricultural  imp'm'nts 

Patent  medicines 

Confectionery 

Coffee  

Chewing  gum 

School  books 

The  average  annual  cost  of  books  per  pupil  enrolled  in  the  public 
elementary  and  high  schools  is  about  $0.783. 


512,000,000  ' 

i    < 

"  5.12  " 

417,000,000  ' 

'    ' 

"  4.17  " 

397,000,000  * 

i 

«  3.97  " 

275,000,000  ' 

< 

«  2.75  " 

249,000,000 

"  2.49 

146,000,000 

"  1.46 

142,000,000 

"  1.42 

135,000,000 

"  1.35 

100,000,000 

"  1.00 

25,000,000  ' 

< 

"  .25 

11,000,000  « 

<    < 

<    ««   ^ 

With  these  figures  before  us  we  can  not  well  escape  the 
conclusion  that  to  choose  an  inferior  school  book  because 
it  is  a  few  cents  cheaper,  while  we  spend  lavishly  for  less 
important  things,  is  to  "strain  at  a  gnat  and  swallow  a 
camel." 

CONCLUSION 

I.  In  California  the  prices  at  which  books  were  sold  to 
pupils  by  the  state  from  1885  to  1913  were  in  some  cases 
lower  and  in  some  cases  higher  than  those  at  which  the 
same  or  similar  books  might  have  been  secured  from  pub- 
lishers, averaging  about  the  same.     Since  elementary  texts 
were  made  free  in  1913,  a  lower  nominal  price  has  been 
fixed  for  the  few  books  sold  to  private  purchasers,  but, 
according  to  the  statement  of  the  State  Superintendent, 
this  price  does  not  cover  the  total  cost  of  publication. 

In  Kansas  the  three  books  published  by  the  state  are 
now  sold  at  prices  somewhat  lower  than  could  be  secured 
in  the  open  market  for  good  books,  but  these  prices  do 
not  represent  the  total  cost  to  the  people  of  the  state,  if 
all  the  expense  factors  are  considered.  In  no  case  is  lower 
cost  to  the  people  proved  if  all  the  expense  -factors  are 
taken  into  account. 

II.  The  service  rendered  under  the  plan  of  state  publi- 
cation is  unsatisfactory  in  that 

1.  The  books  produced  are  always  inferior  in  mechan- 
ical features. 

2.  They  are  often  inferior  pedagogically. 

3.  There  is  often  serious  delay  in  delivery  of  books. 

4.  It  is  difficult  to  change  to  a  better  book. 

5.  Pupils  are  sometimes  limited  to  the  use  of  a  single 
book,  supplementary  books  being  barred. 

50 


III.  There  are  serious  general  objections  to  the  plan 
of  state  publication  in  that 

1.  The  state  should  engage  in  no  business  enterprise 
which  can  safely  be  left  to  private  effort. 

2.  It  provides  an  easy  road  to  inefficiency  and  graft. 

3.  It  subordinates  school  interests  to  political  emer- 
gencies. 

4*.  It  violates  the  professional  spirit  of  teachers. 

5.  It  discourages   authorship  and  competitive  pub- 
lishing effort. 

6.  It  emphasizes  cost  rather  than  quality  of  educa- 
tional equipment. 


51 


IF  a  state  is  willing  to  publish  as  cheaply  as 
possible  made-to-order  books  and  impose 
them  upon  the  schools  without  first  testing 
them,  it  may  be  possible  to  do  it  at  slightly 
less  expense  than  would  be  incurred  in  buy- 
ing the  best  approved  books  from  publishers ; 
but  experience  to  date  shows  that  in  every 
case  the  result  is  inferior  books,  and  that 
lower  cost  is  not  proved,  if  all  the  expense 
factors  are  considered. 

If  the  state  should  experiment  with  its 
books,  as  the  publisher  is  compelled  to  do, 
and  should  require  the  use  of  no  book  until 
it  had  been  tested  and  proved  successful,  the 
cost  to  the  state  would  be  increased  to  an 
amount  greater  than  that  required  to  purchase 
the  best  approved  books  from  publishers. 

If  the  state  adopts  and  prints  only  books 
that  have  been  tested  and  proved  by  the  pub- 
lisher, it  must  pay  and  it  should  pay  to  the 
publisher  enough  to  reimburse  him  for  the 
cost  of  his  experimenting,  and  to  yield  him 
a  reasonable  profit. 

The  choice  seems  to  lie  between  inferior 
books  at  prices  that  show  no  saving  when  all 
the  cost  factors  are  included  and  the  best 
books  at  prices  that  permit  a  fair  publisher's 
profit. 


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